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FULFILMENT 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY, 



AS EXHIBITED IN 



ANCIENT HISTORY AND MODERN TRAVELS. 



BY STEPHEN B. WICKENS. 



The study of prophecy identifies in the mind the God of revelation with 
the God of nature and of history ; and, if investigated in a right spirit 
of seriousness, may be mightily instrumental in establishing a strong 
and practical sense of religion in the heart of the inquirer. — Chalmers. 



FIFTH THOUSAND. 



PUBLISHED BY LANE & SCOTT, 

200 Mulberry-street. 
JOSEPH LONGKING, PRINTER. 

1849. 



$& 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1841, by 
G. Lane, &. P. P. Sandford, in the Clerk's Office of the District 
Court of the Southern District of New-York. 






**S* t*oe 



PREFACE 



Prophecy constitutes so large and im- 
portant a part of divine revelation, that no 
apology can be needful for any attempt, 
however feeble, to elucidate its meaning, ex 
hibit its fulfilment, and render the study of it 
interesting to the youthful reader. 

Most works on the fulfilment of prophecy 
presuppose, on the part of their readers, a 
more extensive knowledge of sacred geogra- 
phy and general history than probably most 
of them possess ; the writer of the following 
pages has therefore endeavoured to enliven 
his work by such an admixture of history 
and of descriptive geography, as he supposed 
would serve to render the subject intelligible 
and attractive to general readers. The in- 
formation which it contains has been derived 
from the most authentic sources, and espe- 
cially from the publications of those travel- 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 



lers whose researches have, within the last 
few years, thrown such a new and unex- 
pected light upon the subject of Scripture 
prophecy. 

In crediting quotations, he has usually, for 
brevity's sake, given only the name of the 
author ; but by referring to the following list, 
the reader will generally find the full title 
of the work quoted, and, if it be a book of 
travels, the year in which the author per- 
formed his journey. 

A Journey Southward from Damascus, 
in the year 1836. By C. J. Addison, Esq. 

History of the Expedition of Alexander. 
By Arrian. Translated by J. Rooke. 

Travels in Syria and the Holy Land in 
1810-11. By J. L. Burckhardt. 

History of Arabia, Ancient and Modern. 
By Andrew Crichton. 

Travels in Greece, Egypt, and the Holy 
Land, in 1801. ByE. I). Clarke, LL.D. 

History of the Decline and Fall of the Ro 
man Empire. By Edward Gibbon. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. O 

Travels in the Holy Land, and other places 
mentioned in Scripture, in 1832-3. By Rev. 
R. S. Hardy. 

Historical Researches into the Politics, 
intercourse, and Trade of the Principal Na- 
tions of Antiquity. By A. H. L. Heeren, 
Professor of History in the University of 
Gottingen. 

Christian Researches in Syria and Pales- 
tine, in 1823. By Rev. W. Jowett. 

Narrative of a Journey from India to Eng- 
land, in 1824. By George Keppel. 

Letters on Egypt, Edom, and the Holy 
Land, in 1836. By Lord Lindsay. 

Travels from Aleppo to Jerusalem, in 
1696. By Henry Maundrell. 

Dissertations on the Prophecies. By Tho- 
mas Newton, D. D., Bishop of Bristol. 

Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, and 
Ancient Babylonia, in 1817-20. By Sir Ro- 
bert Ker Porter. 

Travels in Palestine and Syria, in the year 
1830. By George Robinson. 



b SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

The Pictorial Bible, being the Old and 
New Testaments, illustrated, &c. To which 
are added original notes, explanatory of the 
history, geography, natural history, and an- 
tiquities of the sacred Scriptures. Three 
volumes, Imp. 8vo. 

This treasury of Scripture illustration was published in 
London, in 1838, and at once became a standard work. 
From a recent London journal we learn that "Mr. John 
Kitto, the author of it, when a boy of eleven years, had 
his organs of hearing destroyed by a fall from the roof of a 
house. But notwithstanding this, he has travelled exten- 
sively, and resided for some time in Bagdad, during a pe- 
riod when plague, flood, famine, and war were desolating 
that unhappy city. It was during his sojourn in the East, 
that Mr. Kitto, in despite of the disadvantages under 
which he labours, accumulated that store of knowledge, 
observation, and comparison which has rendered his com- 
mentary on the Bible so novel and valuable." On the 
subject of Prophecy, his literary researches, as well as his 
personal acquaintance with several of the places referred 
to by the prophets, have enabled him to point out some 
circumstances which previous writers had overlooked. 

Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Baby- 
lon, in 1811 ; and a Memoir on the Ruins 
of Bafeylon. By C. J. Rich, the East India 
Company's Resident at Bagdad. 

Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, 
and on the Site of Nineveh, in 1820. By the 
same author. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 7 

Travels along the Mediterranean and Parts 
Adjacent, in 1816-18. By Robert Rich- 
ardson, M. D. 

A Relation of a Iourney begun An. Dom. 
1610. Fovre Bookes. Containing a De- 
scription of the Turkish Empire, of iEgypt, 
of the Holy Land, of the Remote parts of 
Italy, and Hands adioyning. By George 
Sandys. Third edition, London, 1632. 

Travels and Observations relating to seve- 
ral parts of Barbary and the Levant, in 1722. 
By Thomas Shaw, D. D. 

Travels through Syria and Egypt, in the 
years 1783, 4, 5. By M. C. F. Volney. 

Mr. Keith has well remarked, that Volney, " from the 
manner in which he generalizes his observations, and 
marks the peculiar features of the different districts of Sy- 
ria, with greater acuteness and perspicuity than any other 
traveller whatever, is, although ' he meant not so, neither 
did his heart think so,' the ever-ready purveyor of evi- 
dence in all the cases which came within the range of his 
topographical description of the wide field of prophecy, — 
while, at the same time, from his known, open, and zeal- 
ous hostility to the Christian religion, his testimony is 
alike decisive and unquestionable." 

Narrative of a Voyage along the Shores of 
the Mediterranean, including a Visit to Egypt, 
Palestine, etc. By W. R. Wilde, M, R. I. A. 



8 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

To originality, either of matter or manner, 
the present work makes but little pretension ; 
and should it answer the end for which it is 
designed, the writer claims no other merit 
than that of diligence in collecting, and judg- 
ment in arranging, the materials of which it 
is composed. S.B.W. 

New- York, April 1,1841. 



In preparing the work for a new edition, 
the whole has been carefully revised : some 
new matter has also been introduced, drawn 
from the following authorities : — 

Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount 
Sinai, and Arabia Petrea : a Journal of Tra- 
vels in 1838. By Edward Robinson, D. D. 

Travels in Egypt, Arabia Petrea, and the 
Holy Land. By Rev. Stephen Olin, D. D. 

Neither of the above works were published 
until after the appearance of the first edition 
of this volume. s. B. W. 



CONTENTS, 



Chap. Pago 

I. Introductory Observations 11 

II. Prophecies concerning the Posterity of Ishmael 41 

III. Prophecies concerning the Jews 71 

IV. Prophecies concerning the Jews, concluded .. 101 

V. Prophecies concerning the Holy Land 145 

VI. Prophecies concerning Amnion andMoab . 189 

VII. Prophecies concerning Philistia 211 

VIII. Prophecies concerning Nineveh 227 

IX. Prophecies concerning Babylon 245 

X. Prophecies concerning Tyre 313 



FULFIL _\I E N T 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY, 
CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

Propnecy defined — Large portion of Scripture consists of prophe- 
cy — Extent and subjects of Scripture prophecy — Christ the grand 
theme of prophecy — The prophets — Different modes in which God 
communicated his will to them — Manner in which they published 
their predictions — Style of the prophetic writings — Prophecy an 
emanation of the divine goodness — The prophetic denunciations 
always conditional — Fulfilment of prophecy proves the inspiration 
of Scripture — Infidel objection — Contrast between Scripture pro- 
phecy and heathen oracles — Use of unfulfilled prophecy — Succes- 
sion of Scripture prophecy — Object of the present work. 

By the word prophecy we understand the 
foretelling of future events — the declaration be- 
forehand of " things that shall be hereafter:" 
not such things, however, as may be conjectur- 
ed by human sagacity, or expected from the re- 
gular operations of nature, but such as can be 
foreseen by none but the omniscient God, and 
foretold by those only to whom the " Father of 
lights" shall reveal them. Man, by the use of 
history, may acquire some information respect- 



12 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

ingthe things that are past ; but he " knows not 
what shall be on the morrow :" prophecy, so 
far as it goes, draws aside the veil which hides 
coming events, and lays open the scenes of the 
future.* 

Every reader of the Bible must have ob- 
served how large a portion of the inspired 
volume is of a prophetical character. Scrip- 
ture prophecy began to be uttered in Paradise, 
by our first parent, before the fall ; " its parts 
are distributed over the various dispensations 
of religion for upward of four thousand years ; 
and it ceased only with the last accents on the 
lips of the last of the apostles." 

Thus extensive in the period of its delivery, 
prophecy is not less so in regard to the sub- 
jects which it embraces, and the period of time 
to which it refers. The fate of nations, and 
of individuals, the rise and fall of kingdoms, 
the succession of empires, the desolation of 

* The words prophesy, predict, and foretel, are pre- 
cisely the same in meaning, but are derived from different 
languages. The word prophesy is of Greek origin, being 
composed of the two words irpo, before, and (prjfii, I speak ; 
predict is a compound of the two Latin words pre, be- 
fore, and dico, I speak ; the word foretel is, of course, 
formed by the union of the two English words before and 
tell. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 13 

mighty cities and countries, are among the 
objects of prophetic vision. It points to events 
near and remote, and embraces the most pro- 
minent and remarkable facts in the history of 
the world from its creation to the present day ; 
while its unfulfilled predictions stretch forward 
to the period when it shall be declared that 
" time shall be no longer." 

But the grand subject of Scripture pro- 
phecy was the progressive development of the 
person and kingdom of the promised Messiah — 
the Redeemer of the world. " The testimony 
of Jesus" observes St. John in the Revelation, 
(xix, 10,) " is the spirit of prophecy" — the scope, 
design, and consummation of it. " To him give 
all the prophets witness" (Acts x, 43,) is the lan- 
guage of another inspired apostle. They were 
chosen of God to testify beforehand, " the suf- 
ferings of Christ and the glory that should 
follow." 

" Messiah's name attuned each lofty string, 
The world's Redeemer, and his people's King ! 
He in his glory, in his grief, appear'd 
The Star that led them, and the Sun that cheer'd. 
For him the kindling inspiration glow'd, 
And words of fire from lips terrestrial flow'd. 
Him, in his own supernal light they saw, 
And track'd his suffering path with trembling awe. 



14 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Beheld him conflict with the powers beneath, 
Victorious burst the iron grasp of death, 
A conqueror from the realms of hades rise, 
And pass triumphant through the cleaving skies. 
They view'd his empyreal throne sublime, 
High raised o'er every realm of earth and time ; 
And hail'd that morn commenced whose cloudless sun 
An everlasting course through changeless years shall 
run." — Bulmer's Messiah's Kingdom. 

Under the Old Testament dispensation, pro- 
phecy directed the eye of hope to a future 
Saviour, and was, as the apostle beautifully 
expresses it, " a light shining in a dark place," 
increasing in splendour and brightness, " until," 
at length, in " the fulness of time," the " day" of 
the gospel " dawned" on the world, " and the 
day-star arose" in the hearts of the faithful. As 
the first coming of Christ was the centre of Old 
Testament prophecy, so the leading design of 
the New Testament predictions is to confirm 
our faith in his second coming, and teach us to 
be " looking for and hastening unto the day of 
the Lord," 2 Peter iii, 12. 

The catalogue of Scripture prophets em- 
braces men from almost every rank and station 
in society. Among them were kings, princes^ 
patriarchs, priests, and legislators. The greater 
part, however, were taken from the lower walks 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 15 

of life — husbandmen, shepherds, fishermen, 
&c. ; but the office and the calling dignified 
the men. Their natural talents, education, and 
habits were as dissimilar as their occupations ; 
but they all gave indubitable evidence that they 
were " moved" to the prophetic office " by the 
Holy Ghost." 

Various means were employed by Jehovah 
in making known his will to the prophets. He 
" spake unto them," says the apostle, " in di- 
vers manners." The usual method seems to 
have been by the direct agency of the Holy 
Spirit, impressing upon the mind of the indi- 
vidual the message which he was to deliver. 
Sometimes predictions were delivered by the 
ministry of angels. Judges xiii, 2-5 ; Zech. i, 
4 ; Luke i, 13. In some instances, as in the 
case of Abraham, and of Samuel, the word of 
the Lord came in an audible voice. Gen. xxii, 
15-18 ; 1 Sam. iii, 1-14. Sometimes his deter- 
minations respecting the future were communi- 
cated in dreams, instances of which are record- 
ed in Gen. xv, 12-16 ; xxvii, 12-15 ; and Jer. 
xxxi, 26. The dreams of Joseph, Pharoah, and 
Nebuchadnezzar, were also prophetic. At other 
times he made use of visions, which differed 
from dreams, in that they generally consisted 
of scenes and representations which appeared 



16 8CRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

to a person when he was awake, and in pos- 
session of his natural powers and faculties. 
After the prophet had attentively considered the 
vision, its import and signification were usually 
made known to him. Ezekiel viii, ix, xxxvii ; 
Daniel viii, x, xi. The book of Revelation, also, 
consists of a series of prophetic visions. Rev. 
i, 9, &c. " The method of communication 
which the Deity adopted in respect of Moses 
seems to have differed from all these : and 
whatever is to be understood by the phrase, 
1 The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a 
man speaketh to his friend,' (Exod. xxxiii, 11,) 
a superior kind of illumination is doubtless in- 
tended. It was the highest degree of inspira- 
tion."* But however various were the methods 
of communicating the divine will, they were 
always such as produced, in the mind of the 
person who received the communication, a con- 
viction that it was from God, and enabled him 
to say, with confidence, " The word of the Lord 
came unto me." 

When the prophets had received their mes- 
sage, they proceeded to publish it, which they 
did in various ways. Sometimes it was writ- 
ten out, and posted up where it might be read 

* Collyej's Lecture* on Scripture Prophecy. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 17 

by persons who passed by. Hab. ii, 2. When 
Jeremiah received the promise of Juaah's resto- 
ration from Babylon, he was commanded to 
" write the words in a book," (Jer. xxx, 2,) doubt- 
less that, being placed in the hands of the peo- 
ple, it might be a source of consolation to them 
during the years of their captivity. But the 
more general method seems to have been that 
of proclaiming the predictions aloud m some 
public place ; thus Jeremiah was commanded by 
God to " stand in the gate of the Lord's house, 
and proclaim there" his word, Jer. vii, 2 ; at 
other times we find the same prophet publish- 
ing his message at the city gates, (xvii, 20,) 
and also at the gate of the king's house, (xxii, 
1, 2;) and Jonah publicly declared in the 
streets of Nineveh the judgments of God against 
that city. Jonah iii, 4. Upon some important 
occasions, when it was necessary to rouse the 
fears of a disobedient nation and recall them to 
repentance, the prophets adopted extraordinary 
modes of expressing their convictions of im- 
pending wrath, and endeavoured to awaken the 
apprehensions of the people by the most strik- 
ing illustration of threatened punishment. Thus 
Jeremiah made bonds and yokes, and put them 
upon his neck, to indicate the subjection to 
which Judea, and the neighbouring nations, 
2 



18 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

should be reduced by the king of Babylon. Jer. 
xxvii, and xxviii. On another occasion, having 
assembled the elders of the priests and people, 
and announced to them the judgments of God 
against Judah and Jerusalem, he took an earthen 
bottle and dashed it to the earth, saying, " Even 
so will the Lord break this people and city, as 
one breaketh a potter's vessel that cannot be 
made whole again," Jer. xix, 11. So Isaiah 
"walked naked and barefoot," (Isa. xx, 2,) and 
Ezekiel publicly removed his household stuff 
from the city, (Ezek. xii, 1-12,) more forcibly to 
represent by these actions some corresponding 
calamities which awaited nations obnoxious to 
God's wrath ; this symbolical method of ex- 
pressing important circumstances being not un- 
usual among eastern nations. 

The greater part of the prophetic writings 
are poetical, and, like all oriental poetry, highly 
figurative, abounding in metaphors drawn from 
the manners and customs, climate, natural phe- 
nomena, &c, of eastern countries. Some 
knowledge, therefore, of oriental customs and 
forms of speech is often essential to a full un- 
derstanding of the literal meaning of a predic- 
tion. Of this some instances will occur in the 
course of the present volume. 

The purpose of God in the dispensation of 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 19 

prophecy was one of pure and unmixed bene- 
volence to mankind. From the primeval pro- 
mise in paradise, to the last of the apocalyptic 
visions, " good will to man" breathes in every 
prediction. The redemption of the world by 
Jesus Christ, the future glory of the church, and 
the universal extension of the kingdom of the 
Messiah, were the leading subjects of Scrip- 
ture prophecy, and the themes on which the 
prophets delighted to dwell. Many of their pre- 
dictions, it is true, consist of denunciations 
against ungodly cities and nations ; but even 
here " mercy and judgment met together ;" 
the design of these threatenings was to " lead 
men to repentance," and however apparently 
positive the terms in which they are express- 
ed, they were always understood to be con- 
ditional ; their execution depending upon the 
effect which they might produce on those to 
whom they were addressed. This we learn 
from the testimony of God himself, as given in 
Jer. xviii, 7, 8, where he says, " At what in- 
stant I shall speak concerning a nation, and 
concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull 
down, and to destroy it ; if that nation, against 
whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, 
I will repent of the evil that I thought to do 
unto them." Thus, when " the men of Nine- 



20 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

veh repented at the preaching of Jonah," the 
Lord " repented of the evil that he said he 
would do unto them, and he did it not," Jonah 
iii, 10 ; and because Ahab humbled himself be- 
fore the Lord, the execution of the divine judg- 
ments against his house was suspended until 
after his death. 1 Kings xxi, 29. 

One of the benefits derived from prophe- 
cy, is the conclusive and irresistible evi- 
dence which it affords of the truth of divine 
revelation. " There is a voice which comes to 
us from the desolate sites where Babylon and 
Nineveh once stood in splendour, and reigned 
in power — from the prostrate condition of fallen 
Egypt — from the wonderful annals and remark- 
able preservation of the Jewish nation — from 
the desolation of Judea and the surrounding 
countries" — testifying that God himself was the 
instucter of the prophets, and that through his 
inspiration they declared in the beginning what 
should come to pass in the latter days. The 
foreknowledge of future events is one of the 
strongest proofs that can be given of a super- 
natural communication with the Deity. It mani- 
fests, in an equal degree with miracles, the in- 
terposition of a divine agency. It is as impos- 
sible for man, who " knoweth not what a day may 
bring forth," to predict the events which shall 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 21 

occur a hundred years hence, as it is for him 
with the word of his mouth to heal the sick or 
raise the dead. "The voice of Omnipotence 
alone can perform the latter, — the voice of Om- 
niscience alone can reveal the former, — and 
both are alike the voice of God." 

In one particular, indeed, the evidence of pro- 
phecy is more forcible than that of miracles ; for 
while the proof from miracles loses something 
of the vividness of its effect (though none of its 
authority) from the distance of time, the force 
of the argument from prophecy is increased 
from that very cause. It is a growing evidence, 
gathering strength by length of time, and afford- 
ing from age to age, as its predictions are gradu- 
ally fulfilling, fresh proofs of its divine origin. 
" As a majestic river expands itself more and 
more the further it removes from its source, 
so prophecy, issuing from the first promise in 
paradise as its fountain head, acquired addi- 
tional strength and fulness as it rolled along, 
and will still go on increasing in extent and 
grandeur, until it shall finally lose itself in the 
ocean of eternity."* 

The opponents of Scripture have attempted 
to invalidate the evidence of divine inspiration 
# Sir William Jones. 



22 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

arising from prophecy, by alleging that the pa- 
gan nations of antiquity had their prophets and 
oracles as well as the Hebrews. It is true that 
they had numberless pretenders to the gift of 
prophecy. Their history abounds with stories 
and predictions of augurs and oracles ; and be- 
cause it is known that these were the offspring 
of fraud and cunning on the one hand, and of 
ignorance and superstition on the other, infidels 
have affected to believe that all predictions of 
futurity are founded on the same basis, and 
therefore reject the prophecies of Scripture. It 
is, however, an easy matter to show the perfect 
contrast which exists between those contempti- 
ble mockeries of divine omniscience, and the 
sublime and holy predictions contained in the 
Bible. 

The ancient heathen, when about to make 
war, or settle a colony, or undertake any event 
of importance, consulted their gods in order to 
ascertain their prospects of success. One mode 
of obtaining the desired information was by the 
observance of omens, which were interpreted 
by persons called augurs or soothsayers. Thus 
the most important events of state, as well as 
the concerns of private individuals, would often 
depend upon the direction in which birds might 
happen to fly, the greediness of chickens in 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 23 

devouring their food, accidental rencounters, 
words spoken by chance, and afterward inter- 
preted into good or bad omens, eclipses, comets, 
unforeseen accidents, with an infinity of chi- 
meras of like nature.* 

But their most esteemed method of determin- 
ing future events was by answers from oracles, 
or gods who were supposed to reside in par- 
ticular places, and to reveal, through their at- 
tending priests, the secrets of the future to 
those who consulted them. There are said to 
have been about three hundred of these oracles 
in different parts of the world ; but the principal 
ones were in Greece. They were generally 
located in the recesses of some thick wood or 
dark cavern, or in the secret places of temples. 
The most distinguished of them was the ora- 
cle of Apollo, at Delphi, which was consulted 
in cases of importance by most of the princes 
of the times in which it flourished. The ora- 
cles were accessible only at stated periods ; 
and whoever consulted them was required to 
make large presents to the god before he could 
obtain the information he desired. Numerous 
ceremonies were also to be performed, and 
sacrifices to be offered, and, in case the omens 
were unfavourable, no answer was given. As 
* Rollin's Ancient History. 



24 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

the priests were themselves the sole judges of 
the omens, it was easy for them to evade every 
question respecting which it might be inexpe- 
dient for them to commit themselves. When, 
at length, the answer was pronounced, it was 
often couched in such obscure and doubtful 
terms, that it needed another oracle to explain 
its meaning. Sometimes it was expressed in 
so artful and ambiguous a manner, that it was 
capable of two opposite interpretations, and, 
therefore, however the event turned out, the 
credit of the oracle was sustained. For this 
the Delphian oracle was notorious. History 
relates, that when Croesus, after presenting a 
most munificent donation, consulted this oracle 
in relation to his intended invasion of Persia, 
he received this reply : — 

KpOLGog *A?»vv 6ta/3ag fieydTiijv apxv v KaraXvaei. 
Croesus, crossing the Halys, shall destroy a great empire. 

This he naturally understood to mean that he 
should destroy the Persian empire, and, on the 
strength of this prediction, he commenced a 
war which terminated in the loss of his own. 
When, after his defeat, he reproached the oracle 
with having deceived him by a false prediction, 
he was told that the oracle had only declared 
that a great empire should be destroyed, and 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 25 

that lie ought to have made a second inquiry to 
ascertain whether his own or the Persian em- 
pire was intended. By this evasion, the jug- 
gling priests saved the credit of their oracle, and 
the unfortunate king found he had been outwit- 
ted. When Pyrrhus inquired of the oracle 
what would be the issue of his war with Rome, 
he received a response in Latin, so " cunningly 
devised," that it might, with equal propriety, 
be rendered, Pyrrhus shall conquer the Romans, 
or, The Romans shall conquer Pyrrhus. When- 
ever they gave a more direct answer, and the 
event did not happen to correspond thereto, 
they accounted for the failure by pretending 
that some of the initiatory ceremonies had not 
been rightly performed, or that the gods were 
unfavourable to the person who made the in- 
quiry. 

The servility and corruption of the pagan 
oracles were notorious. Through intimidation, 
or bribery, they were frequently induced by 
public men to give such answers as would pro- 
mote their own schemes. " Demosthenes, in 
one of his speeches to the Athenians, publicly 
charged the Delphic oracle with being gained 
over to the interests of King Philip ; and the 
Greek historians give other instances in which 
it had been corrupted by money, and the pro- 



26 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

phetess sometimes deposed for bribery, and 
sometimes for lewdness."* 

" The pagan oracles uttered no spontaneous 
predictions ; unless a direct appeal was made 
to them, they observed a prudent silence. In 
saying nothing, they exposed themselves to no 
detection ; and when they did speak, it was 
always with sufficient precaution."! None of 
their predictions went deep into futurity. They 
relate chiefly to the termination of affairs then 
actually in hand, the preparatory circumstances 
of which were well known, and the issue 
speedily to be determined. There was not 
even the pretence of foresight beyond a few 
years. Being thus consulted only in matters of 
immediate emergency, the result of which could 
often be foreseen by persons of ordinary saga- 
city, it is. not surprising that the event should 
sometimes accord with their predictions. This 
served for a long series of years to keep up 
their credit ; but at length their numerous frauds 
and impostures began to open the eyes of the 
more sagacious heathen, some of whom openly 
ridiculed their pretensions, and held them in 
utter contempt. They continued, however, to 
maintain their influence over the multitude 
until after the time of Christ, when, as the light 
* Watson's Institutes. f Home's Introduction. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 27 

of the gospel gradually dispelled the darkness 
in which the heathen world was enveloped, the 
oracles fell into disrepute, and at last entirely- 
ceased. 

From this pitiful scene of juggling and im- 
posture, let us now turn to the prophets of the 
Bible. We find these imposing no bewildering 
ceremonies on those who consulted them, and 
seeking no concealment in the delivery of their 
predictions. Their prophecies were not oracu- 
lar responses " spoken in secret, in a dark 
place of the earth," but were publicly proclaim- 
ed in the most frequented places — in the courts 
of the temple, in the streets of cities, in the 
assemblies of the elders — and were afterward 
generally committed to writing, so that they 
might be " known and read of all men." 

While the priests of paganism " taught for 
hire, and the prophets thereof divined for mo- 
ney," driving a gainful trade, and communicat- 
ing their oracles only upon the inducement of 
large gifts, the prophets of the Lord, on the 
contrary, were distinguished for their incor- 
ruptible integrity. Even Balaam, who, we are 
told, " loved the wages of unrighteousness," 
while under the influence of divine inspiration 
could say, " Though Balak should give me his 



28 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond 
the word of the Lord my God," Num. xxii, 18 ; 
and his subsequent conduct evinced the since- 
rity of his declaration. Num. xxv, 11-13. 

As they were not to be corrupted by bribery, 
so neither could they be influenced by fear or 
intimidation. Their office frequently compel- 
led them to deliver the most unwelcome mes- 
sages under the most trying circumstances. 
They were often required to denounce the judg- 
ments of the Almighty against a rebellious peo- 
ple, and rebuke the iniquities of those who were 
exalted in rank and encircled with power. But 
"they concealed no truth which they were com- 
missioned to declare, however displeasing to 
their nation, or hazardous to themselves." Yea, 
they " stood before kings," and boldly reproved 
them for their sins. Their fearless integrity 
often exposed them to " bonds and imprison- 
ment," and sometimes even to death itself. 
"Thou that killest the prophets, and stones! 
them that are sent unto thee," was the reproach 
addressed to Jerusalem by our Lord. Matt, 
xxiii, 29-37. 

In their predictions we discover neither arti- 
fice nor ambiguity. They had a clear, deter- 
minate, and consistent sense, and were spoken 
with all the confidence of truth, and generally 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 29 

with the plainness of history. Although a veil 
of obscurity hung over some of the prophecies 
which referred to distant events, until their ac- 
complishment enabled men to " understand the 
interpretation," yet even these were never de- 
lusive in their character, or capable of double 
and contrary significations. 

While the pagan oracles " hardly dared to 
assume the prophetic character in its full force, 
but stood trembling, as it were, on the brink of 
futurity, conscious of their inability to venture 
beyond the depth of human conjecture,"* the 
genuine prophets of the Almighty " looked 
through the course of succeeding ages, and 
proved, by the very sweep and compass of 
their predictions, that they were under the in- 
spiration of Him to w^hom ' a day is as a thou- 
sand years, and a thousand years as one day.' "f 
They beheld with a clear and steadfast eye, 
and declared with authority and confidence, 
events so distant, so contingent, and at the time 
of their prediction so improbable, that no hu- 
man foresight could have anticipated them. 
"Their pronunciations of the state of various 
people, — -as the Jews, and the Arabians, and 
the Egyptians, — delivered thousands of years 
ago, offer, at the present moment, the most 

* Bp. Watson's Apology, f Watson's Institutes. 



30 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

striking graphic delineation of these people as 
they actually are. Their picturesque represent- 
ations of the fate of ancient cities — the fisher- 
men that dry their nets on the rocks and rubbish 
of Tyre, the doleful creatures that nestle in the 
ruins of Babylon and Nineveh — give, with all 
the accuracy of a Flemish picture, the vivid re- 
alities of their present situation."* 

In the subjects of their predictions the Hebrew 
prophets are inconceivably superior to the ora- 
cles of paganism. The predictions of the lat- 
ter were altogether destitute of dignity and 
importance, — the mere guesses of fortune-tel- 
lers at the issue of matters of local, personal, 
and temporal concern, — having no higher object 
in view than to promote the worldly schemes, 
and gratify the vain curiosity of kings and 
princes. The prophecies of Scripture, on the 
contrary, embrace subjects of the highest im- 
portance to the present and eternal welfare, not 
only of individuals and nations, but of the whole 
human race, and are inseparably connected 
with the religious hopes and expectations of 
mankind. 

Their prophecies formed but a small part of 
the public instructions of the prophets ; they 
also taught the people all the practical parts of 
* Chalmer's Evidences. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 31 

a divine religion ; they proclaimed the being 
and providence of God ; they upheld religion 
and piety in the worst times, and at the greatest 
hazards ; they exposed the pretensions of the 
pagan deities ; they called men to repentance, 
conversion, and newness of heart ; and they 
proffered the merciful promises of pardon and 
grace. In the midst of this course of doctrine, 
and in order to encourage the people to yield 
to it, they delivered their sacred oracles of a 
Saviour to come.* 

The purity of their lives, the intrinsic excel- 
lence of their instructions, the disinterested 
zeal, and undaunted fortitude with which they 
discharged their ministry, the miraculous pow- 
ers which they exercised, and the wonderful 
accomplishment of their predictions, fully de- 
monstrate the claims of the Hebrew prophets 
to a divine commission, and prove that they 
were, what the Scriptures declare them to have 
been, " holy men of God, who spake as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost," 2 Peter i, 21. 
"Can then the prophecies of Scripture be pa- 
ralleled with the dark, venal, and delusive ora- 
cles of heathenism, without impiety ?" Who 
that has any knowledge of both, would for a 
moment think of seriously comparing the one 
* Bishop Wilson's Evidences. 



32 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

with the other, or pretend that they have equal 
claims to divine inspiration ? "In the contrast, 
the interpreter of pagan oracles stands abashed 
before the prophet of the Lord, like the witch 
of Endor before the rising spirit of Samuel."* 

While the fulfilment of prophecy thus esta- 
blishes the divine authority of the Scriptures, 
the prophecies which yet remain to be accom- 
plished answer even now an important end. 
They open our prospect into the future, encour- 
aging us to put forth our utmost efforts, and to 
expect the accomplishment of our warmest 
wishes for the conversion of the world. While 
the mighty conflict between truth and error is 
still going on, we see how it will terminate, 
and know that the powers of darkness will at 
last be overthrown, and that, to use a prophetic 
phrase, " at even tide it shall be light." 

" Lo, radiant truth on high, 
With outstretclvd arm, the lamp of prophecy- 
Hangs o'er a darken'd world," 

and the light which it affords has cheered the 
church in her darkest hours, and been her con- 
solation and support in the most troublous 
times. 

* Stowe's Introduction to the Study of the Bible. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 33 

" Long in this weary wilderness, the word 
That speaks of happier scenes hath been her stay ; 
And urging oft her rude and cheerless way 
Through many a thorny brake, her tearful eyes 
Have turn'd in holy transport to the skies, 
And realized, by faith's transpiercing power, 
The bliss of that anticipated hour, 
When, glorious, seated on his conquering throne, 
Messiah's sway a subject world shall own ; 
When earth's wide realms Jehovah's praise shall sing, 
And bow the suppliant knee to heaven's immortal King.'* 
Bulmer's Messiah's Kingdom. 

With a brief chronological view of the suc- 
cession of Scripture prophets, mentioning the 
leading subjects of their prophecies, we will 
close the present chapter. 

" The first man, Adam, has an undoubted 
right to stand at the head of the prophets, as 
he does at the head of the human race. His 
declaration concerning marriage, ' For this 
cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and 
cleave to his wife,'' is so truly prophetic, that no 
doubt can be formed on the subject. There was 
then nothing in nature or experience to justify 
such an assertion ; and he could have it only by 
divine inspiration. The millions of instances 
which have since occurred, and the numerous 
laws which have been founded on this princi- 
ple among all the nations of the earth, show 
3 



3i SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

with what precision the declaration was con 
ceived, and with what truth it was published U 
the world."* 

After the fall, guilty man was not thrust out 
of paradise till prophecy had whispered some 
hope of a future Saviour, in the promise that 
the " Seed of the woman" should " bruise the 
head of the serpent." 

" Enoch, the seventh from Adam," is called 
a prophet in Jude 14, 15, where a fragment of 
one of his prophecies is preserved. 

Noah, one hundred and twenty years before 
the deluge, was divinely premonished of that 
tremendous judgment ; and previous to his death 
he delivered predictions respecting his sons. 

Abraham received prophetic annunciations 
of the " Seed" in whom " all the families of the 
earth should be blessed ;" of the multiplication 
of his posterity, their affliction for four hundred 
years in a strange country, and their subsequent 
possession of the promised land. 

Isaac foretold the subjection of Esau's de- 
scendants to those of Jacob. 

Instructed by the spirit of prophecy, " Jacob, 
when he was a dying," predicted the advent 
of " Shiloh," and told his sons what should be- 
fall their posterity in future days. 
* Dr. A. Clarke. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 35 

Joseph was favoured with prophetic dreams 
himself, and had the gift of interpreting those 
of others ; he also foretold the redemption of 
Israel from the bondage of Egypt. 

After the exodus, prophecy rekindled its torch. 
Moses, who was one of the most eminent of 
the prophets, predicted the coming of the Mes- 
siah, under the designation of a prophet like unto 
himself, and foretold some of the most remote 
events of the Jewish history. About the same 
time, also, the unwilling prophecies of Balaam 
were delivered. 

After the death of Moses there seems to have 
been a cessation of prophecy for about four 
hundred years. " The word of the Lord was 
precious in those days ; there was no open 
vision," until the period when " Samuel was 
established to be a prophet" in Israel. 1 Sam. 
iii, 1, 20. 

The age of prophecy, emphatically so call- 
ed, now commenced. From this time to the 
close of the Old Testament, the succession of 
prophecy was uninterrupted. First came Da- 
vid, and tuned his harp ; mingling in his psalms 
devotion, poetry, and prophecy together. The 
succession was kept up by some seers of minor 
note, until the appearance of those remarkable 
prophets Elijah and Elisha, whose histories 



36 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

form so prominent a part of the two books of 
Kings. 

Jonah prophesied during the reign of Jero- 
boam II., king of Israel. Amos, Hosea, and 
Micah, prophesied about the same time, or 
soon after, and denounced the judgments of God 
against the corruptions of Israel and Judah, and 
also against the inhabitants of Philistia, Edom, 
Ammon, and Moab. 

Contemporary with these, also, was Isaiah, 
the prince of the prophets, who continued until 
the time of Hezekiah, king of Judah. From the 
number, variety, and explicitness of his predic- 
tions concerning the advent, character, ministry, 
sufferings, and death of the Messiah, and the 
future glory of the church, Isaiah has, not un- 
aptly, been denominated the evangelical pro- 
phet. He also testified against the crimes of 
the Jews, and declared the fate of Babylon, 
Philistia, Moab, Egypt, and Tyre. 

Nahum came next, bearing " the burden of 
Nineveh ;" then Joel, whose prophecies relate 
principally to the Jews ; and Zephaniah, who 
predicted also the punishment of Philistia, 
Moab, Ammon, and Nineveh. 

Habbakuk flourished in the reign of Jeho- 
iakim, and foretold the captivity of Judah by 
the Chaldeans, as did also Jeremiah, who lived 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 37 

to see the fulfilment of his prediction, and ut- 
ter his Lamentations over the desolation of the 
holy city. He likewise foretold the termina- 
tion of their captivity at the end of seventy 
years, and denounced the divine judgments upon 
several other nations. 

Ezekiel, who followed the Jews in their 
captivity, predicted the calamities which God, 
through the instrumentality of Nebuchadnezzar, 
would bring upon Judea and the surrounding 
countries. About this time, also, it is supposed 
that Obadiah delivered his prophecy concern- 
ing the destruction of Edom. 

In Babylon, Daniel arose, and pointed out the 
succession of the four great empires of Assyria, 
Persia, Greece, and Rome. He likewise fixed 
the precise time of Messiah's appearance, and 
foretold the rise and fall of antichrist, and the 
universal prevalence of the true religion. 

Haggai and Zechariah returned with the 
Jews from Babylon ; they reproved the languid 
nation for their delay in rebuilding the temple, 
encouraged them by promises of future prospe- 
rity, and delivered several predictions relative 
to the Messiah and his kingdom, and the future 
condition of the Jews. 

Mala chi, the last of the Old Testament pro- 
phets, flourished in the days of Nehemiah. He 



38 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

reproved the priests and people for their hypoc- 
risy and general wickedness, and predicted the 
coming of Christ, and of the " Messenger" who 
should " prepare the way" before him. 

" Here is a succession of divinely inspired 
men, by whom God ' at sundry times and in 
divers manners spake unto the fathers,' from 
the beginning of the world down to the restora- 
tion from the Babylonish captivity, a period of 
three thousand six hundred years." 

A pause of four hundred years then elapsed, 
during which every whisper of prophecy was 
hushed, "until Christ our Lord arose — pre- 
ceded, according to the prophetic declaration, 
by his precursor — and predicted the destruction 
of Jerusalem, and the dissolution of the Jewish 
polity." 

He was followed by St. Paul, who prophe- 
sied the recovery of the Jews ; and predict- 
ed the rise of the papal apostacy, under the 
designation of " the man of sin — the son of 
perdition," 2 Thessalonians ii, 3. Last of all 
came St. John, who, in the prophetic visions 
of the apocalypse, foreshows the most remark- 
able revolutions and events in the Christian 
church from his own time until the final and 
complete triumph of Christianity, and the per- 
fecting of its glory in the heavenly world, when, 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 39 

t» ,se the apostle's own expression, "the mys- 
Uh / of God shall be finished." The revelations 
of die beloved disciple close the dispensation 
of prophecy, and the canon of Scripture to- 
gether. " The vision is then shut up, the testi- 
mony is sealed, and the word of the Lord is 
ended." 

"It is obvious that the wide range and pro- 
digious extent of Scripture prophecy gives the 
subject an importance and sublimity, a sort of 
impress of divine magnificence, which, when 
verified by the respective fulfilments, surpasses 
all that we could have conceived. We have 
not merely one or two oracular declarations, 
but a whole system of prescient grandeur, run- 
ning through all time, and stretching to the 
consummation of all things."* 

The prophecies of Scripture may be divided 
into three classes. 

1. Prophecies relating to the Jewish nation 
in particular. 

2. Prophecies relating to other nations and 
empires. 

3. Prophecies relating to the person and 
kingdom of the Messiah. 

The majority of these predictions have al- 

* Wilson's Evidences, 



40 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

ready met their accomplishment ; some are at 
the present time in course of fulfilment, while 
others, as we have before observed, look for- 
ward to the far-distant future. 

It is our purpose in the following pages to 
select some of the most striking and remarkable 
of those predictions which have been fulfilled, 
or now are fulfilling in the world, and trace 
their accomplishment in the history of the na- 
tions, and in the present state of the people and 
countries to which they refer. We shall then 
see how wonderfully " the history of the world 
has responded to the prophecies of the Bible, 
and echoed back to the ' holy men' who utter- 
ed them, a complete assurance that they ' spake 
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' "* 
* M'llvaine's Lectures. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 41 

CHAPTER II. 

PROPHECIES RESPECTING ISHMAEL'S POSTERITY. 

The Arabs descended from Ishmael — Prophecies respecting 
Ishmael — Refer to his posterity rather than to himself— Hagar 
and Ishmael sent out from Abraham's family — Their sufferings 
and deliverance in the wilderness— Reflections — Ishmael lives an 
unsettled life — His sons the founders of twelve tribes — His pos- 
terity, according to the prophecy, become a " great nation" — They 
are a " wild" people — They retain the manners and customs of 
their ancestors — They live in a state of hostility with all other 
nations — Are robbers by profession — Manner in which they justify 
their robberies — Their hospitality — The Arabs have maintained a 
perpetual independence — Were never conquered by the Egyp- 
tians, Assyrians, or Persians — Alexander's projects against them 
defeated by his death — Were not subdued by the Romans — Do 
not acknowledge the authority of the Turks — Objections of Gib- 
bon refuted by himself— Character of the Arabs, by Sandys — 
Testimony of Volney — Concluding reflections. 

One of the promises made to Abraham, was, 
that he should be the " father of many nations." 
This promise was abundantly verified. Since 
the days of Noah and his sons there has been 
no man whose posterity is equally numerous, 
or to whom so many nations refer their origin. 
The most distinguished branches of his family 
are the Arabs and the Jews, the former the de- 
scendants of Ishmael, the latter of Isaac. Con- 
cerning each of these nations there are some 
remarkable prophecies, and both of them exist 
at the present day, separate and distinct from 



42 SCRIPTURE PROPHKCV. 

the rest of mankind, and from each other, a 
standing proof of the power and providence of 
God, and of the truth of divine revelation. 

The principal prophecy concerning Ishmael 
and his posterity is contained in the language 
of the angel to Hagar, when she fled from the 
face of her mistress. " And the angel of the 
Lord found her in the wilderness, and said unto 
her, ' Return to thy mistress and submit thyself 
under her hands.' And the angel of the Lord 
said unto her, ' I will multiply thy seed exceed- 
ingly that it shall not be numbered for multi- 
tude. Behold, thou art with child, and shalt 
bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael ; 
and he will be a wild rmin ; his hand will be 
against every man, and every man's hand 
against him : and he shall dwell in the pre- 
sence of all his brethren,' " Gen. xvi, 9-12. 
Some additional circumstances are contained 
in Genesis xvii, 20, where, in answer to Abra- 
ham's prayer, " O that Ishmael might live be- 
fore thee !" Jehovah graciously assures him, 
" As for Ishmael, I have heard thee : behold, 
I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, 
and will multiply him exceedingly : twelve 
princes shall he beyet, d r 1 I will make him a 
great nation." 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 43 

" The usual idiom of the Scripture requires 
us to understand in both passages what is said 
of Ishmael personally to be true also of his de- 
scendants. Indeed, it is rather his posterity 
than himself that is primarily intended. When 
it is said, \ I will multiply him exceedingly — I 
will make him a great nation,' the word ' him' 
obviously means his posterity ; for no one can 
imagine that he himself was meant to be multi- 
plied in virtue of this promise, neither can one 
man be called a nation, — so, likewise, when it 
is said ' his hand shall be against every man, 
and every man's hand against him,' it is evident 
that one man could not subsist alone in open 
enmity to all the world, nor could one man's 
hand be literally against every man's. There 
is, moreover, not the slightest hint in Scripture, 
nor any reason to believe, that Ishmael lived 
personally in a state of opposition to his bre- 
thren. Throughout this whole prediction, there- 
fore, Ishmael must be viewed as the representa- 
tive of his posterity. What is declared of him, 
and promised to him, was intended to be affirm- 
ed of his descendants and fulfilled in them."* 

For several years after his birth, Ishmael and 
Jtis mother remained in the family of Abraham, 
and, until the fourteenth year of his age, bo 
* Bush's Notes on Genesis, 



44 SCRIPTURE PROPHECV. 

doubtless expected to be the sole heir of his 
father. At this period, however, the birth of 
Isaac, who was to be the heir of the promises, 
caused a great change in the condition of Ish- 
mael, who, irritated probably at being super- 
seded in the inheritance by his younger bro- 
ther, appears to have treated him with rudeness 
and contempt. This did not escape the jealous 
eye of Sarah, who in consequence insisted on 
the immediate expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael 
from the family. Abraham, however, was loth 
to proceed to such extremities. His feelings 
were different from those of Sarah, who fixed 
her affections exclusively on Isaac, and re- 
garded Ishmael as an intruder and a rival : but 
Abraham, as the father of both, felt a paternal 
affection toward each, and the course proposed 
by Sarah " was very grievous in his sight be- 
cause of his son." It was however in ac- 
cordance with the designs of God, and Abra- 
ham was directed to comply. In this, as in 
various other instances, the patriarch manifest- 
ed his exemplary faith and obedience. It was 
painful to his feelings as a father to concur in 
so severe a measure ; but some gleam of futu- 
rity was afforded to enlighten the darksome 
but appointed path. " And God said unto 
Abraham, ' Let it not be grievous in thy sight 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 45 

because of the lad, and because of thy bond- 
woman : in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, 
hearken unto her voice ; for in Isaac shall thy 
seed be called. And also of the son of the 
bondwoman will I make a nation, because he 
is thy seed,'" Gen. xxi, 12. 

With a small supply of provisions and a bot- 
tle of water, Hagar, with her son, who was now 
about sixteen or seventeen years old, was sent 
forth to find a home in some of the surrounding 
districts. Directing her steps toward her na- 
tive country, she wandered with the lad in the 
wilderness of Beersheba. In a few days the 
water is spent, and poor Hagar pants along the 
solitary desert, turning hither and thither in 
search of some scanty supply. Not a drop is 
to be found ; and at length, arriving at some 
shrubs, she sat down with her exhausted, and, 
as she supposed, dying son, beneath the wel- 
come shade. Unable to witness his expiring 
agonies, she laid him under one of the shrubs 
and retired to a short distance ; "for she said, 
1 Let me not see the death of the child,' and she 
sat over against him, and lifted up her voice 
and wept," Gen. xxi, 16. Who can imagine 
the pangs of that excruciating moment, or the 
bitterness of the tears she shed 1 A more finish- 
ed picture of distress it would be difficult to 



46 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

conceive. Had there been any ear to hear, 
any eye to pity, or any hand to relieve the 
sufferers, their cries and tears might have been 
mingled with hope ; but as far as human aid 
was concerned, their situation was apparently 
desperate, and however much we may blame, 
we can scarcely be surprised at Hagar's distrust 
of the promises made to her on a former occa- 
sion, when she saw that son who was to be the 
father of a great nation, ready to perish before 
her eyes. But God was not unmindful of his 
promises : at this critical moment an angel 
again appeared to the desponding mother, and 
directed her to a well of water close at hand, 
whence she replenished her bottle and supplied 
her fainting son. The wanderers then con- 
tinued their journey as far as the wilderness 
of Paran, where they took up their residence. 
" In this distressing circumstance in the life 
of Hagar, a superficial observer might see 
nothing but a curious concurrence of ordinary 
events. The insolence of Ishmael irritated 
the temper of Sarah ; she procured his expul- 
sion and that of his mother from her household ; 
retiring in disgrace, she narrowly escaped de- 
struction in the wilderness, and afterward took 
up a casual residence in the vicinity. But if 
we pay a proper attention to these events, we 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 47 

shall view them with another eye. Every cir- 
cumstance was connected with a vast provi- 
dential plan. The folly of Ishmael, the con- 
duct of Sarah, the compliance of Abraham, the 
various occurrences connected with the settle- 
ment in Paran, concurred to accomplish the 
predestined purposes of Jehovah ;"* for God 
does not always, nor even generally, bring his 
predictions to pass by miraculous means, but 
by the operation and concurrence of natural 
causes. Ishmael, in consequence of his ex- 
pulsion from his father's house, and the way of 
life into which he was thus forced, became 
early inured to hardships ; and his freedom from 
restraint, and the habit of reliance on himself 
which his mode of life must have induced, did 
much to foster that love of liberty and inde- 
pendence of character which was ascribed to 
him by the prophecy, before his birth. 

" He dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and 
became an archer," Gen. xxi, 20. " The expres- 
sion, ' he became an archer,' " observes Profes- 
sor Bush, " unquestionably denotes warlike 
character and practices. It is but another 
mode of saying that he began to be distinguish- 
ed for lawless and predatory habits, as his de- 
scendants have always been." 

* Cox's Female Scripture Biography. 



48 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

It was also specified that he should be the 
father of " twelve princes." In a subsequent 
part of the Mosaic history, we find a notice of 
the fulfilment of this prediction. Moses, when 
enumerating the immediate descendants of Ish- 
mael, concludes his account in these words : — 
" These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are 
their names, by their towns, and by their cas- 
tles ; twelve princes according to their na- 
tions;" by which we understand, not that Ish- 
mael's twelve sons were independent sovereign 
princes, but that they became the heads or 
founders of so many distinct tribes,* in the 
same manner as the sons of Jacob were the 
heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. Of Ish- 
mael's personal history we have no further 
knowledge, except that he joined with his bro- 
ther Isaac in paying the last tribute of respect 
to his father, and that he died in the one hun- 
dred and thirty-seventh year of his age. Gen. 
xxv, 9, 18. 

We have now seen the accomplishment of 
the prediction so far as Ishmael himself is con- 
cerned ; but, as was before observed, the pro- 

* The Arabs of the present day are divided into sepa- 
rate tribes, the heads of which are commonly called 
Emirs, or princes. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 49 

phecy refers not so much to Ishmael personally, 
as to his posterity: we will, therefore, proceed 
to trace its fulfilment in the history and present 
state of the Arab tribes. 

" / will multiply him exceedingly — / will make 
him a great nation" — This prediction was ful- 
filled as soon as in the course of nature it could 
be accomplished. In process of time, the de- 
scendants of Ishmael became a " great nation," 
and such they have continued to the present 
day. They are mentioned in Scripture under 
the names of Ishmaelites, Hagarenes, and 
Arabians. 

It must not be forgotten, however, that under 
the general name of Arabs many persons con- 
found two distinct classes of people, who, 
though inhabiting the same countries, are of 
widely different characters. One class live in 
cities and towns, and subsist by agriculture and 
commerce ; the other class comprise the roving, 
pastoral tribes, who inhabit the desert and 
dwell in tents. The latter are the posterity of 
Ishmael, and are commonly distinguished from 
the other Arabs by the name of Bedouins.* 

* The word Bedouin is a corruption of the Arabic badwi, 
which is derived from the substantive badw, " an open 
country, a desert," and signifies an inhabitant oi the 
desert. 

i 



50 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

The numbers leading this wandering and pre- 
carious mode of life are incredible. They are 
not confined to the deserts of Arabia. " From 
the banks of the Indus on the east, to those of the 
Senegal on the west, are colonies of them to be 
met with ; and between north and south, they 
are scattered from the Euphrates to the island 
of Madagascar. Of all nations they have spread 
themselves farthest over the world ; the Tar- 
tar hordes have not occupied so wide an extent 
of the globe."* 

He will be a wild man. — The original signifies 
literally " a wild-ass-man,"t for the word which 
our translators have rendered" wild," is the same 
that is applied to the onager, or wild ass, in 
other parts of the Scriptures. The figure is very 
striking. The principal qualities of the wild 
ass are savage independence, prodigious swift- 
ness, a disposition to assemble in troops, and a 
fondness for the wilderness ; all which strongly 
characterize the descendants of Ishmael. The 
description of this animal in the book of Job 
will recur to the recollection of every student 
of the Bible. 

* Niebuhr's Travels in Arabia. 

t This form of expression is still used among the Arabs, 
who employ the term " wild ass," to designate a person 
of a contumacious, untractable disposition. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 51 

"Who hath sent out the wild ass free] 
Or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass 1 
Whose house I have made the wilderness, 
And the barren land his dwellings. 
He scorneth the multitude of the city, 
Neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. 
The range of the mountains is his pasture, 
And he searcheth after every green thing." 

Job xxxix, 5-8. 

Nothing can be more descriptive than this of 
the wild, wandering, lawless lives of the Be- 
douin Arabs, whose descent from Ishmael is 
admitted by the learned, and gloried in by 
themselves. God himself has sent them out 
free ; he has loosed them from all political re- 
straint. The wilderness is their habitation, and 
in the parched land, where no other human be- 
ings could live, they have their dwellings. Claim- 
ing the barren plains of Arabia as their patrimo- 
nial domain, they have, from the days of their 
great ancestor, down to the present time, ranged 
the wide extent of the burning sands which 
separate them from all surrounding nations, as 
rude, savage, and untr act able as the wild ass 
himself. They scorn the city, and therefore 
have no fixed habitation. " It is in the lonely 
wilderness and the rugged mountains that their 
attachments centre ; because it is there that 
they can live without ceremony and without 



52 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

control. Their sterile sands are dearer to them 
than the spicy regions of the south, and they 
would consider the security of cities but a poor 
compensation for the loss of their indepen- 
dence. The tent* they regard as the nursery 




* The common Arab tent is of an oblong figure, vary- 
ing in size according to the wants or rank of the owner. 
A length of from twenty-five to thirty feet, by a depth or 
breadth not exceeding ten feet, form the dimensions of a 
rather large family tent. The height of the centre poles, 
which are made higher than the others, in order to give a 
slope to throw off the rain, varies from seven to ten feet ; 
but the height of the side posts seldom exceeds five or six 
feet. The covering of the tent is usually black goat's 
hair, so compactly woven as to be impervious to the 
heaviest rain ; but the side coverings are often of coarse 
wool. The front of the tent is usually kept open, except 
in winter. The interior is divided into two apartments by 
a curtain hung up against the middle poles of the tent. 
One of these apartments is for the men, and one for the wo- 
men. Sometimes there is a third apartment for the cattle 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 53 

of every noble quality, and the desert as the 
only residenee worthy of men who aspire to be 
the unfettered masters of their own actions. 
They cannot imagine how existence can be 
endured, much less enjoyed, except in a dwell- 
ing of goat's hair which they can pitch and re- 
move at pleasure."* They may be said to have 
no lands, and yet the range of the mountains is 
their pasture ; they pitch their tents and feed 
their flocks wherever they please ; and they 
search after every green thing — are continually 
looking after prey, and seize on every kind of 
property that comes within their reach. 

" Even in the ordinary sense of the epithet 
1 wild,' " observes the editor of the Pictorial 
Bible, " there is no other people to whom it 
can be applied with more propriety than to the 
Arabs, whether used in reference to their cha- 
racter, mode of life, or place of habitation. We 
have seen something of the Arabs and their 
life, and always, we felt the word wild to be pre- 
cisely that by which we should choose to cha- 
racterize them. Their chosen dwelling place 
is the inhospitable desert, which offers no at- 
tractions to other eyes, but which is all the dearer 
to them for that desolation, inasmuch as it se- 
cures to them that independence and unfetter- 
* Chricton. 



54 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

ed liberty of action which constitute the charm 
of their existence, and which render the minute 
boundaries and demarcations of settled dis- 
tricts, and the restraints and limitations of 
towns and cities perfectly hateful in their sight. 
The simplicity of their tented habitations, their 
dress, and their diet, we can also characterize 
by no more fitting epithet than ' wild ;' and that 
epithet claims a still more definite application 
when we come to examine their continual wan 
derings with their flocks and herds, their con- 
stant readiness for action, and their frequent 
predatory excursions against strangers or against 
each other." 

Except in the article of religion, their man- 
ners and customs have suffered little or no 
change during the long period of upward of 
three thousand years. Their manner of living, 
in many respects, forms a perfect picture of 
primitive usages, as described by the sacred 
writers. Coming among them we can hardly 
help fancying ourselves carried back to the ages 
which immediately succeeded the flood. " The 
forms we see present us the picture of the old 
patriarchs with scarcely a single alteration. We 
may listen to their language, number their pos- 
sessions, partake of their food, examine their 
dress, enter their tents, attend the ceremonies 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 55 

of their marriage festivals, and present ourselves 
before the prince, still all is the same. At the 
well they water their flocks ; they sit at the 
door of their tents in the cool of the day ; they 
take ' butter, and milk, and the calf which they 
have dressed,' and set it before the stranger ; 
they move onward to some distant place, and 
pitch their tent near richer pasturage ; and all 
the treasures they possess are in camels, kine, 
sheep, and goats, men servants and women 
servants, and changes of raiment ; we may 
stand near one of their encampments, and as 
the aged men sit in dignity, or the young men 
and maidens drive past us their flocks, we are 
almost ready to ask if such a one be not Abra- 
ham, or Lot, or Jacob, or Job, or Bildad the 
Shuhite, or Rebekah, or Rachel, or the daugh- 
ter of Jethro, the Midianite ; we seem to know 
them all. The mountains, and valleys, and 
streams partake of the same unchangeable- 
ness ; not a stone has been removed, not a 
barrier has been raised, not a tree has been 
planted, not a village has been collected to- 
gether. The founder of the race might come 
again to the earth, and he would recognize, 
without effort, his own people and his own 
land." * 

* Hardy's Tra els in the Holy Land, etc. 



56 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

His hand will be against every man, and every 
marts hand against him. — Bearing in mind what 
has already been said respecting the collective 
import of the name Ishmael in this prediction,* 
we can have no difficulty in understanding this 
as a declaration that his posterity should exist 
in a state of perpetual hostility to the rest of 
mankind. And there is certainly no people to 
whom this applies with greater truth than to the 
Arabs ; for there is none of whom aggression 
on all the world is so remarkably characteris- 
tic! In the words of Gibbon, which strikingly 
correspond with those of the prophecy, " they are 
armed against mankind." They have all along 
infested Arabia and the neighbouring countries 
with their robberies and incursions. " Plun- 
der, in fact, forms their principal occupation, 
and takes the chief place in their thoughts ; 
and their aggressions upon settled districts, 
upon travellers, and even upon other tribes of 
their own people, are undertaken and prose- 
cuted with a feeling that they have a right to 
what they seek, and therefore without the least 
sense of degradation. They have reduced 
robbery to a science, and digested its various 
branches into a complete and regular system. "J 
" They regard the profession as honourable, and 
* See page 43. f Bush. % Pictorial Bible. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 57 

the character of a successful and enterprising 
robber invests a Bedouin with as high a dis- 
tinction in his own eyes, and in the eyes of his 
people, as the most chivalrous acts would win 
among the nations of Europe. The plundering 
of a solitary traveller is in their eyes as much 
a military exploit, as the sacking of a town, or 
the reduction of a province."* " They rob in- 
discriminately, enemies, friends, and neigh- 
bours. It is no protection to speak the same 
language, or to profess the same religion. The 
caravan on its pilgrimage to Mecca is consider- 
ed to offer as lawful a booty as the bales of the 
rich merchant, or the stores of the infidel 
stranger. "f Travellers crossing the desert are 
compelled to go armed, in large companies or 
caravans, and to keep watch and guard like a 
little army, and then they scarcely ever escape 
being plundered : even when they procure the 
services of one of the Arabs as a guide, it only 
ensures them protection from the assaults of 
the tribe to which the guide belongs. 

This plundering life they justify " by alleg- 
ing the hard usage of their father Ishmael, who, 
being turned out of doors by Abraham, had, 
they say, the open plains and deserts given 
him by God for his patrimony, with permission 
* Chricton. t Hardy. 



58 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

to take whatever he could find there. And on 
this account they think they may, with a safe 
conscience, indemnify themselves as well as 
they can, not only on the descendants of Isaac, 
but on every body else ; always supposing a 
sort of kindred between themselves and those 
they plunder. And in relating adventures of 
this kind, they think it sufficient to change the 
expression, and instead of saying, i I robbed a 
man of such and such a thing,' to say, ' I gain- 
ed it.' "* But they do not confine their preda- 
tory excursions to the desert : they make fre- 
quent hostile inroads in the neighbouring coun- 
tries, to supply those wants which the recesses 
of the desert have denied. " The poverty of 
their own land is with them an honourable ex- 
cuse for relieving their necessities at the ex- 
pense of their wealthier neighbours. They 
affirm that in the division of the earth, the rich 
and fertile parts were assigned to other branch- 
es of the human family ; and that the descend- 
ants of the outlaw, whose hand was to be 
against every man, may recover, by force, the 
hereditary portion of which they have been 
unjustly deprived."! 

This character of the Arabs, which is con- 

* Sale's Preliminary Dissertation to the Koran. 
t Chricton. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 59 

firmed by ancient history, and by every modern 
writer who has traversed their wide and barren 
wilds, is of itself sufficient to verify the predic- 
tion of the text. But besides this, the different 
tribes are continually at variance among them- 
selves. Burckhardt assures us that there are 
few tribes which are ever in a state of perfect 
peace with all their neighbours, and adds, that 
he could not recollect this to be the case with 
any one among the numerous tribes with which 
he was acquainted. These wars, however, are 
seldom of long duration ; peace is easily made, 
but broken again upon the slightest pretences. 
This dark side of the Arab character has a 
beautiful contrast in their well known hospi- 
tality. The moment the fierce marauder ceases 
to be in a state of war, he becomes quite an- 
other man. The hungry Bedouin always di- 
vides his scanty meal with a still more hungry 
wanderer. The traveller who seeks his pro- 
tection, or confides in his honour, he entertains 
without inquiry, or the hope of remuneration. 
He regards him not merely as a guest, but as 
a member of the family, and when he departs 
he is dismissed with blessings, perhaps with 
gifts. So long as he remains, his life and pro- 
perty are secure ; and should a robbery occur, 
the host, if he possesses the means, will in- 



60 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

demnify him for whatever loss he may incur 
while under his protection. The hospitality 
of the Arabs was greatly extolled in ancient 
times, and those of the present day exercise 
this virtue no less than their ancestors did.* 

And he shall dwell in the presence of all his 
brethren. — The word translated " dwell," signi- 
fies literally to tabernacle, and refers to the 
practice of dwelling in tents, which has almost 
universally prevailed among the descendants 
of Ishmael, and to which there is an allusion in 
Isaiah xiii, 20. The meaning of the passage, 
taken in connection with the previous declara- 
tion, " He shall be a wild man," undoubtedly 
is, that the posterity of Ishmael, notwithstand- 
ing the constant hostility subsisting between 
them and other nations, should maintain a per- 
petual independence, and should continue to 
pitch their tents " in the presence," or in the 
face " of all their brethren," in spite of all at- 
tempts to conquer or dispossess them ; and no- 
thing is more notorious than that they have 
never been effectually subdued ; although con- 
tinually annoying the surrounding countries with 
their predatory incursions, yet every attempt to 
extirpate them has proved abortive, and they 

* Chricton. — Niebuhr. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 6J 

are at present, and have continued from the re- 
motest ages, a separate, free, independent, and 
invincible nation. 

The country in which they dwell lies be- 
tween Egypt and Assyria, yet they were never 
subject to either of those powerful nations. Se- 
sostris, the most renowned monarch that ever 
swayed the sceptre of Egypt, who, in the pride 
of his power, caused his chariot to be drawn 
by conquered kings, who were yoked to it like 
beasts of burden, was compelled, as Diodorus 
Siculus informs us, to draw a line of defence 
across the Isthmus of Suez, to secure his terri- 
tory from the incessant depredations • of the 
Arabs and Syrians. The Assyrians, Medes, 
and Persians found them alike invincible. Cam- 
byses, when he invaded Egypt, was obliged to 
obtain permission of the Arabs to pass through 
their dominions ; and Cyrus, the deliverer of 
the Jews, and the conquerer of Babylon, could 
never impose conditions on this free, independ- 
ent people. Herodotus, the historian who 
lived nearest those times, expressly states that 
" the Arabs were never reduced by the Per- 
sians to the condition of subjects, but were con- 
sidered by them as friends, and opened to them 
a passage into Egypt, which without their 
assistance would have been utterly impracti- 



62 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

cable." And in another place he says, that 
" while Phenicia, Palestine, Syria, and all the 
neighbouring countries were taxed, the Arabian 
territory remained free from paying any tri- 
bute." Some time after we find them assist- 
ing the Egyptians against the Persians ; so 
that they appear to have acted as friends or 
enemies to the Persians, as it suited their in- 
terests or inclinations.* 

Alexander the Great, who overturned the 
Persian empire, and conquered Asia, never 
stretched his powerful sceptre over the wan- 
dering tribes of the desert. When other na- 
tions sent embassies of submission, the Arabs 
alone disdained to acknowledge the conqueror, 
and despised his menaces. Mortified at their 
indifference, and determined to chastise their 
presumption, he raised a prodigious force ; but 
death interposed ; in the very midst of his pur- 
poses Alexander was cut off, and the Arabs 
thus escaped the fury of his arms, and were 
never subdued by any of his successors. We 
find them afterward, sometimes at peace and 
sometimes at war with the neighbouring states ; 
sometimes joining the Syrians, and sometimes 
the Egyptians ; sometimes assisting the Jews, 
and sometimes plundering them; and in all 
* Newton on the Prophecies. 



SCRIFTURE PROPHECY. 63 

respects acting like a free people who neither 
feared nor courted any foreign power what- 
ever.* 

In the course of time the sceptre of the world 
passed into the hands of the Romans : but 
while they subjected all other nations, they 
were never able to reduce Arabia to a. Roman 
province, although at different periods of their 
power they made several attempts to do so. 
The flatterers of Trajan have, it is true, num- 
bered among his exploits, the subjugation of . 
all Arabia and part of India, and coins were 
actually struck in commemoration of these ex- 
ploits ; but the most he was able to accomplish 
was the reduction of a few individual tribes ; 
the great body of the Arabs still continued with 
impunity to make incursions and depredations 
in Syria and the other Roman provinces, and 
eluded the vengeance of their enemies by re- 
tiring within those natural barriers of rocks and 
sand which bade defiance to their pursuers. 
" The Roman eagle, which spread her resist- 
less pinions over all countries, and which 
neither the storms of the north could terrify, 
nor the supposed barriers of the world confine, 
found no rest for the sole of its foot on the 
barren sands of Arabia, and returned unsuc- 
* Newton. — Collyer. 



64 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

cessful from the pursuit of the rough sons of 
Ishmael." 

We have thus seen that the Arabs escaped the 
yoke of the most powerful nations of antiquity. 
Whoever were the conquerers of Asia, they re- 
mained free ; and they have transmitted their 
independence unimpaired to the present times. 
The descendants of the " wild man" still spurn 
the chains of a foreign conqueror. The Turks 
have now been for several centuries masters 
of the adjacent countries ; but their jurisdiction 
has never been acknowledged by the Arabs, 
and they are so little able to restrain the depre- 
dations of these fierce wanderers, that they are 
compelled to pay them a sort of tribute, in order 
to ensure the safe passage of the pilgrims who 
annually go in great companies or caravans to 
Mecca, and whom, after all, they frequently 
plunder with impunity. 

But notwithstanding the united testimonies 
of ancient and modern history in favour of the 
uninterrupted freedom of the posterity of Ish- 
mael, one writer has attempted to bring the 
alleged fulfilment of the prophecy into dis- 
credit. Mr. Gibbon, unwilling to pass by an 
opportunity of cavilling at divine revelation, 
observes, " The perpetual independence of the 
Arabs has been the theme of praise among 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 65 

strangers and natives ; and the arts of contro- 
versy transform this singular event into a pro- 
phecy and a miracle, in favour of the posterity 
of Ishmael. Some exceptions, that can neither 
be dissembled nor eluded, render this mode of 
reasoning as indiscreet as it is superfluous : the 
kingdom of Yemen has been successfully sub- 
dued by the Abyssinians, the Persians, the sul- 
tans of Egypt, and the Turks : the holy cities 
of Mecca and Medina have repeatedly bowed 
under a Scythian tyrant ; and the Roman pro- 
vince of Arabia embraced the peculiar wilder- 
ness in which Ishmael and his sons must have 
pitched their tent in the face of all their bre- 
thren." For a full reply to these unqualified 
assertions, we need refer to no other writer 
than Mr. Gibbon himself, who, by the conces- 
sion which he is compelled to make upon the 
truth of an historian, furnishes a complete re- 
futation to his own objections. In the pas- 
sage immediately following the one we have 
just quoted, without the intervention of a single 
sentence, he says, " Yet these exceptions are 
temporary or local; the body of the nation has 
escaped the yoke of the most powerful mo- 
narchies ; the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of 
Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the con- 
quest of Arabia ; the present sovereign of the 
5 



66 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Turks may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, 
but his pride is reduced to solicit the friend- 
ship of a people v:liorn it is dangerous to provoke, 
and fruitless to attack. The long memory of 
their independence is the firmest pledge of its 
perpetuity ; and succeeding generations are ani- 
mated to prove their descent, and to maintain 
their inheritance. Their domestic feuds are 
suspended on the approach of a common ene- 
my ; and in their last hostilities against the 
Turks, the caravan of Mecca was attacked and 
pillaged by fourscore thousand of the confede- 
rates. When they advance to battle, the hope 
of victory is in their front, and in the rear the 
assurance of a retreat. Their horses and ca- 
mels, who in eight or ten days can perform a 
journey of four or five hundred miles, disappear 
before the conqueror ; the secret waters of the 
desert elude his search, and his victorious 
troops are consumed with thirst, hunger, and 
fatigue, in the pursuit of an invisible foe, who 
scorns his efforts, and safely reposes in the 
heart of the burning solitude." Yemen is the 
only Arabian province which had the appear- 
ance of submitting to a foreign yoke ; but even 
here, as Mr. Gibbon himself acknowledges, 
seven of the native princes remained unsub- 
dued ; and even admitting its subjugation to have 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 67 

been complete, the perpetual independence of 
the Ishmaelites remains unimpaired, for this is 
not their country. 

The accounts given of the Arabs by travel- 
lers fully accord with the prophecy respecting 
them. Sandys remarks, " They dwell in tents, 
which they remoue, like walking cities, for 
opportunity of prey, and benefit of pasturage. 
They acknowledge no soueraigne : not worth 
the conquering, nor can they bee conquered : 
retiring to places impassable for armies, by 
reason of the rolling sands, and penury of all 
things. A nation from the beginning vnmixed 
with others : boasting of their nobilitie, and at 
this day hating all mechanicall sciences. They 
hang about the skirts of the habitable countries ; 
and hauing robbed, retire with a maruellous 
celerity." 

Volney, in his account of the Bedouins, ob- 
serves, " It is not without reason that the inha- 
bitants of the desert boast of being the purest 
and best preserved race of all the Arab tribes : 
for never have they been conquered, nor have they 
mixed with other people by making conquests ; 
they have in every respect retained their primi- 
tive independence and simplicity. Every thing 
that ancient history has related of their cus- 



68 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

toms, manners, language, and even their pre- 
judices, is almost minutely true of them to this 
day ; and if we consider, besides, this unity of 
character, preserved through such a number of 
ages, still subsists, even in the most distant 
situations, that is, that the tribes most distant 
from each other preserve an exact resemblance, 
it must be allowed, that the circumstances 
which accompany so peculiar a moral state are 
a subject of most curious inquiry." 

How is it that this remarkable people have 
never changed their situation, or altered their 
habits of life ? Other nations have not con- 
tinued the same. How have the modern popu- 
lation of Egypt, Italy, and Greece, degenerated 
from the powerful nations who formerly occu- 
pied those countries ? How are the French 
and English polished and refined from the an- 
cient Gauls and Britons 1 Men and manners 
change with times, but in all ages the Arabs 
have continued essentially the same. The 
character of Ishmael remains unobliterated in 
the features of his descendants, and, at the close 
of thirty-seven centuries, they still continue, in 
accordance with the prophetic description, a 
numerous people, living in a state of wild and 
lawless independence. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 69 

Who can fairly consider all these particulars, 
and not see the hand of God in the whole affair, 
from the beginning to the end. It was impos- 
sible for any human eye to have pierced the 
cloud of unveiled time ; or for any uninspired 
tongue to have foretold the destinies of this 
outcast child, and of his unborn descendants. 
But He who collects into one point of view 
the past, the present, and the future, as scat- 
tered rays of light are sometimes collected in 
a common centre, uttered the memorable pre- 
diction, whose fulfilment we have just been 
considering — a prediction, the fulfilment of 
which was, in the natural course of events, so 
highly improbable, if not altogether impossible, 
that, as nothing but a divine prescience could 
have foreseen it, so nothing but a divine power 
could have brought it to pass. " Of no other, 
among all the streams of population by which 
this earth has been covered, was such a pro- 
phecy uttered ; and of no other would it have 
been true. The surrounding countries of Egypt, 
Syria, and Persia, have once and again changed 
their rulers and their race. Arabia has ever 
continued the same. The march of conquest 
has been around her, but has never penetrated 
into her wilds : that which was true of her in 
the time of Moses, has been equally so in 



70 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

every subsequent period of time ; and will still 
continue until another prophecy be fulfilled, and 
even ' Arabia's desert ranger' shall bow before 
the power that is supreme : then the horse 
shall no longer stand ready caparisoned to pur- 
sue and plunder the passing traveller ; ' Holi 
ness unto the Lord,' shall be inscribed ' upon 
its bells ;' then shall Isaac and Ishmael again 
meet together in peace, to worship at one altar 
the God of their fathers, and Jesus Christ 
whom he has sent : their hand shall be with 
every man, and every man's hand with them."* 
* Hardy. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 71 



CHAPTER III. 

PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE JEWS. 

The purpose of God in raising up the Jewish nation — Their co- 
venant with God at Sinai — Their covenant solemnly renewed on 
mounts Ebal and Gerizim — Calamities which awaited them if they 
violated the commands of God — Blessings promised in case of 
obedience — Moses foresaw and foretold their future apostacy, and 
the evils which would consequently befall them — They were to be 
invaded by a distant nation, who should treat them with extreme 
cruelty, and take from them all their cities — This prophecy fully- 
accomplished by the Romans — The miseries which, from famine 
and other causes, they endured in the course of the war — Great 
numbers sold as slaves, and sent into Egypt — The sanctuaries are 
brought into desolation — The great body of the people are driven 
out of their own land — The few who remain there are miserably 
oppressed — The Jews are dispersed among all nations. 

No prophecies better deserve the attention 
of the Biblical student, or more clearly esta- 
blish the truth of divine revelation, than those 
respecting the Jews, a people raised up by Pro- 
vidence, in a time of general apostacy, to pre- 
serve, through the darkness of succeeding ages, 
the light of the knowledge of God. 

The waters of the deluge had scarce dried 
up from the face of the earth, when the sons 
of men again began to work iniquity in the sight 
of their Maker ; and the venerable patriarch 
" who had seen the whole human race, his own 
family excepted, cut off for their wickedness, 



72 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

lived to see the descendants of that family be- 
come almost as numerous and as profligate as 
the generation which had been destroyed by 
the flood." That the knowledge of the one 
true God might not be utterly banished from 
the earth, the Lord determined to set apart one 
people to be the witnesses of his grace and the 
depositaries of his truth, that he might thus 
" preserve his testimony among the nations until 
the arrival of that 'time of refreshing' which 
he had predetermined, and the coming of which 
he made known with increasing distinctness, 
as its date approached. To accomplish this 
object, Jehovah did not see fit to make choice 
of any existing nation, but determined to give 
a nation existence, to watch over it from its 
birth, subjecting its infancy to his guidance and 
instruction, and forming its character with a 
view to the great object of its being."* 

The early history of the Jewish nation is one 
unbroken series of divine interpositions. At 
the age of seventy-five years, Abraham jour- 
neyed from the land of the Chaldeans, not know- 
ing whither he went, " but obeying a divine 
voice which called him from among a nation of 
idolaters, to become the father of a new peo- 
ple, and of a purer faith, at a distance from his 
* Pictoriai His* >ry of Palestine. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 73 

native country." Led by the Spirit of God, he 
entered the land of Canaan, where Jehovah ap- 
peared to him, promised that he would multi- 
ply his posterity as the stars of heaven, and as 
the sand upon the sea-shore, and give them that 
land for an inheritance ; and assured him that 
in his "seed should all the families of the earth 
be blessed," Gen. xii, 7; xxii, 17, 18. Two 
hundred and fifteen years after this, his grand- 
son Jacob, " a Syrian ready to perish," with a 
few individuals, went down into Egypt, where 
his descendants, although " evil entreated and 
afflicted," " became a nation great, mighty, and 
populous," (Deut. xxvi, 5,) and whence they 
were delivered by the special interposition of 
Heaven. Guided by " a pillar of cloud by day, 
and a pillar of fire by night," they proceeded to 
Mount Sinai, where they entered into a solemn 
covenant with God, to serve and obey him. 
Under circumstances of the most terrific oran- 
deur, Jehovah then delivered to the people the 
moral law, or the ten commandments ; after 
which, he communicated to Moses the laws by 
which they were to be governed as a nation, 
and the ceremonies to be observed in their re- 
ligious worship. Forty years they were con- 
demned to wander in the wilderness as a pun- 
ishment for their sins, during which time the 



74 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Lord fed them with " bread from heaven," and 
" gave them water out of the flinty rock." 

When at length they approached the borders 
of the land of Canaan, and viewed, for the first 
time, their promised inheritance, Moses, then 
about to surrender at once both his life and his 
trust, recounted, in the ears of the people, the 
mercies of God toward them, and the many de- 
liverances he had wrought out for them. He 
then assured them that their prosperity in the 
land which they were now about to enter, de- 
pended entirely upon their conformity to the 
divine precepts, and urged upon them the duty 
and necessity of obedience, as well from a con- 
sideration of the goodness of God and the bless- 
ings that should follow, as from the fearful 
judgments which awaited them in case of their 
apostacy. 

That these admonitions might make a more 
lasting impression on the minds of the people, 
Moses directed Joshua that as soon as they en- 
tered the promised land, he should lead them 
to mounts Ebal and Gerizim, and there solemn- 
ly renew their covenant with God. Six of the 
tribes were to stand on the side of mount Geri- 
zim, and the remaining six on mount Ebal, op- 
posite, while the priests and the Levites, with 
the ark of the covenant, occupied the narrow 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 75 

valley between : when the priests read from 
the book of the law the blessings which should 
be the reward of their obedience, the tribes on 
mount Gerizim responded, " Amen !" So be it ! 
while the tribes on the opposite mountain gave 
a like response to the curses which were 
denounced on the disobedient. Deut. xxvii, 
xxviii. 

It is impossible for human imagination to con- 
ceive a spectacle more imposing, more solemn, 
more likely to impress the whole people with 
deep and enduring awe, than this final ratifica- 
tion of their covenant, as directed by the dying 
lawgiver. In the open day, and in a theatre, as 
it were, created by the God of nature for the 
express purpose,* after a sacrifice offered on an 
altar of stones, the people of Israel testified their 
deliberate acceptance of that constitution which 
God had enacted for them. They accepted it 
with its inseparable conditions, maledictions 

* "A better situation for performing his ceremony,'* 
observes Mr. Hardy, " could not be conceived, as the hills 
are at such a distance from each other, that the hosts of 
Israel might stand between their summits, and the voice 
from either be heard distinctly, on a calm day, throughout 
the whole assembly." The two mountains are each about 
seven hundred feet in height, and are separated only by 
the narrow valley of Shechem, which is not more than two 
or three hundred paces broad. 



76 SCRIPTURE PROPHECV. 

the most awful, which they imprecated on their 
own heads, in case they should violate its sta- 
tutes — blessings equally ample and perpetual, 
if they should adhere to its holy and salutary 
provisions.* When the countless multitudes 
which thronged the ascent of either mountain, 
with one voice responded the loud "Amen!" 
as the blessings and curses were severally pro- 
nounced by the priests, the full burst of sound 
" must have reverberated among the hills with 
true sublimity, and have ascended in majestic 
volume toward heaven." 

Having given the necessary directions for 
the performance of this impressive ceremony, 
Moses proceeded to enlarge on the blessings 
of obedience ; but, with a dark and melancholy 
foreboding of the final destiny of his people, he 
laid before them, still more at length, the fatal 
consequences of apostacy and wickedness. 
The sublimity of his denunciations surpasses 
any thing in the oratory or the poetry of the 
whole world. Nature is exhausted in furnish- 
ing terrific images ; nothing excepting the real 
horrors of the Jewish history — the miseries of 
their sieges, the cruelty, the contempt, the op- 
pressions, the persecutions, which for ages this 
scattered, and despised, and detested nation has 
*Rev. H. H. Millman. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 77 

endured — can approach the tremendous male- 
dictions which warned them aguinst the viola- 
tion of their law.* These prophetic denuncia- 
tions are contained in the twenty-eighth chapter 
of Deuteronomy, from which we give the fol- 
lowing extracts : — 

" It shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken 
unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe 
to do all his commandments, — the Lord shall 
cause thee to be smitten before thy enemies : 
thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee 
seven ways before them : and shalt be removed 
into all the kingdoms of the earth. — The Lord 
shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and 
astonishment of heart : and thou shalt grope at 
noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and 
thou shalt not prosper in thy ways : and thou shalt 
be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no 
man shall save thee. — Thine ox shall be slain 
before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof : 
thine ass shall be violently taken away from 
before thy face, and shall not be restored to 
thee ; thy sheep shall be given to thine ene- 
mies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them. 
Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto 
another people, and thine eyes shall look, and 
* Rev. H H. Millman. 



78 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

fail with longing for them all the day long. — 
The fruit of thy land, and all thy labour, shall 
a nation which thou knowest not eat up ; and 
thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed al- 
ways : so that thou shalt be mad for the sight 
of thine eyes which thou shalt see. — The Lord 
shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt 
set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou 
nor thy fathers have known ; and there shalt 
thou serve other gods, wood and stone. And 
thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, 
and a by- word among all nations whither the 
Lord shall lead thee. — The stranger that is with- 
in thee shall get up above thee very high ; and 
thou shalt come down very low. He shall lend to 
thee, and thou shalt not lend to him : he shall be 
the head, and thou shalt be the tail.* All these 
curses shall come upon thee because thou heark- 
enest not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, 
to keep his commandments ; and they shall be 

* The " head" and the " tail" are common forms of ex- 
pression in the East, to denote the most elevated and the 
most degraded conditions. Mr. Roberts, in his Oriental 
Illustrations, observes, " It is amusing to hear men of rank 
in the East speak of their dependants as tails. Has a ser- 
vant not obeyed his master, the former asks, ' Who are 
you'? are you the head or the tail V Should a person be- 
gin to take food before those of higher caste, it is asked, 
4 What, is the tail to begin to wag before the head? " 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 79 

upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon 
thy seed for ever. The Lord shall bring a 
nation against thee from far, from the end of 
the earth, as swift as the eagle nieth ; a nation 
whose tongue thou shalt not understand ; a 
nation of fierce countenance, which shall not 
regard the person of the old, nor show favour 
to the young. — And he shall besiege thee in all 
thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come 
down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all 
thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given 
thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own 
body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daugh- 
ters, in the siege, and in the straitness where- 
with thine enemies shall distress thee ; the 
man that is tender among you, and very deli- 
cate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, 
and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward 
the remnant of his children which he shall 
leave : so that he will not give to any of them 
the flesh of his children which he shall eat : 
because he hath nothing left him of the siege, 
and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies 
shall distress thee in all thy gates. The ten- 
der and delicate woman among you, which 
would not adventure to set the sole of her foot 
upon the ground for delicateness and tender- 
ness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband 



80 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward 
her daughter, and toward her children which 
she shall bear : for she shall eat them for the 
want of all things, secretly in the siege and 
straitness wherewith thine enemies shall dis- 
tress thee. — The Lord will make thy plagues 
wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even 
great plagues, and of long continuance. — And 
ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye 
were as the stars of heaven for multitude ; be- 
cause thou wouldst not obey the voice of the 
Lord thy God. — And ye shall be plucked from 
off the land whither thou goest to possess it. 
And the Lord shall scatter thee among all peo- 
ple, from one end of the earth even unto the other. 
— And among these nations shalt thou find no 
ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have 
rest : but the Lord shall give thee there a trem- 
bling heart, — and thy life shall hang in doubt 
before thee ; and thou shalt have fear day and 
night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. 
In the morning thou shalt say, ' Would God it 
were even!' and at even thou shalt say, 'Would 
God it were morning V for the fear of thine 
heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the 
sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. And 
the Lord shall bring thee again into Egypt 
with ships, — and there ye shall be sold unto 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 81 

your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and 
no man shall buy you." 

Such were the judgments with which Moses, 
by the authority of God, threatened the Israel- 
ites in case of their disobedience. On the other 
hand, corresponding blessings were promised 
if they remained faithful to God, and kept their 
covenant with him. " It shall come to pass if 
thou wilt hearken diligently to the voice of the 
Lord thy God, to observe to do all his com- 
mandments, that the Lord thy God will set theo 
on high above all the nations of the earth.— » 
The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise 
up against thee to be smitten before thy face.— 
The Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, 
— and in the fruit of thy ground ; — and he shall 
bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God 
giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee a 
holy people unto himself, — and all the people 
of the earth shall see that thou art called by 
the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid 
of thee." 

Thus the national prosperity of the Israelites 
was made to depend on their obedience to God. 
No attentive reader of the Bible can have fail- 
ed to perceive how strikingly this was the 
case through the whole period of their Scrip- 
ture history. " If they yield to disobedience or 
6 



82 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

idolatry, the meanest of their neighbours, Mo- 
abites, Midianites, Amalekites, even the subject 
and tributary Canaanites, can rise in arms to 
their discomfiture and degradation. Let them 
serve the Lord faithfully, and ' one' of them 
may ' chase a thousand,' the ' daughter of Zion' 
may ' shake her head' at the countless hosts of 
the ' great king, the king of Assyria.' "* 

The denunciations of Moses are to be re- 
garded not merely as conditional threatenings, 
but as clear and distinct predictions. Instruct- 
ed by the spirit of prophecy, he not only warn- 
ed the people of the consequences of disobe- 
dience, but also foresaw and plainly foretold 
their future apostacy ; " I know," said he, " that 
after my death ye will utterly corrupt your- 
selves, and turn aside from the way which I 
have commanded you ; and evil will befall you 
in the latter days ; because ye will do evil in 
the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger 
with the work of your hands," Dent, xxxi, 29. 
See also verses 16-21. 

To notice all the prophecies of Scripture re- 
specting the Jews, would occupy a volume, 
and embrace the whole history of that people 
from their first existence to the present time ; 
* Professor Fausefrt. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 83 

we shall, therefore, give our attention chiefly 
to some of the most striking prophecies of 
Moses, which, although partially fulfilled in 
every apostacy and calamity of the Jews, and 
especially in their subjection by Nebuchadnez- 
zar, yet refer more directly to their final and 
fearful overthrow by the Romans, and their 
subsequent dispersion over the face of the 
whole earth. In our notices of these predic- 
tions, we shall take them up as nearly as pos- 
sible in the order of their fulfilment. 

" The Lord shall bring a nation against thee 
from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as 
the eagle fieth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt 
not understand" — A description very similar to 
this is given of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah: — 
" Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, 
O house of Israel, saith the Lord : — a nation 
whose language thou knowest not, neither un- 
derstandest what they say," Jer. v, 15. He 
also compares them to eagles : — " Our perse- 
cutors are swifter than the eagles of heaven," 
Lam. iv, 19. But the description of Moses, in 
its full extent, can be applied to none of the in- 
vaders of Judea with so much propriety as to 
the Romans. They truly came " from far, from 
the ends of the earth." The soldiers compos- 



84 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

ing the armies with which they subdued Pales- 
tine were mostly from Gaul,* Spain, and Bri- 
tain, countries which formed the limits of 
the then known world. The Roman generals, 
Vespasian and Adrian, who were the two great- 
est instruments in the destruction of the Jews, 
both came for that purpose from Britain, which 
in those days was considered and denominated 
the end of the earth. Indeed, it is said that the 
soldiers of Cesar were unwilling to follow him 
to the conquest of Britain, because they ima- 
gined that he was passing the limits of the 
world. The " eagle" was the standard of the 
Roman armies, and the flight of that bird was 
an apt and forcible representation of the rapidi- 
ty of their conquests. The language of the Ro- 
mans, too, was far more unintelligible to the 
Jews than was that of the Chaldeans : Dr. A. 
Clarke says that the Latin tongue is more for- 
eign than any other to the structure and idiom 
of the Hebrew. 

The invaders of Judea are further character- 
ized as " a nation of fierce countenance^ which 

* The ancient name of France. 

t This expression will remind the historical reader of 
the language of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who, after an 
engagement in which he obtained a victory over the Ro- 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 85 

shall not regard the person of the old, nor show 
favour to the youngP — This was true of both 
the Chaldeans and the Romans in their treat- 
ment of the conquered Jews. Of the former it 
is said that they " slew their young men with 
the sword, — and had no compassion upon young 
man or maiden, old man or him that stooped 
with age," 2 Chron. xxxvi, 17. The Romans 
were of a haughty, warlike spirit, but the his- 
tory of their conduct toward other nations fur- 
nishes no parallel to the inflexible, unrelenting, 
indiscriminate cruelty which they exercised 
toward the Jews. When they took Gadara, 
" they slew all the youth, having no mercy on 
any age whatever."* On the capture of Japha, 
" after the fighting men were killed, they cut 
the throats of the rest of the multitude, partly in 
the open air, partly in their own houses, both 
young and old ; so that there were no males 
remaining except infants, who, with the women, 
were carried as slaves into captivity. "f The 
whole number killed in the fight and the sub- 
mans, was walking about the field of battle \ and seeing 
the wounds of the Romans all in front, and marking the 
fierceness of their countenance, preserved even in death, 
he exclaimed, that if he had such soldiers he would subdue 
the world. — Colly er J s Lectures. 

* Josephus, Wars, book iii, chap. 7. f Ibid. 



86 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

sequent slaughter amounted to fifteen thou- 
sand. 

The inhabitants of Jotapata, to the number 
of forty thousand, met with a similar fate.* On 
taking Tarichea, Vespasian gave the inhabit- 
ants an assurance that their lives should be 
spared, but compelled them to leave the place, 
and go to Tiberias, where, in violation of his 
promise, he barbarously slew all the " old men, 
together with others that were useless, who 
were in number twelve hundred." Of the re- 
mainder, upward of thirty thousand were sold 
as slaves. t When they took Gamala, they 
slew all the inhabitants they found in it, with- 
out regard to age or sex ; they spared not so 
much as the infants, of whom many were flung 
down by them from the citadel. None escaped 
except two women who hid themselves.^ 
" Patient submission and resistance met 
One common fate : the snowy locks of age 
In dust and gore lay clotted : nor the blush 
That mantled on the lovely virgin's cheek, 
Alternate yielding to the paly hue 
Of blanching fear ; nor the mute eloquence 
Of helpless infancy, that playful smiled 
In its destroyer's face, could mercy find." 

The Jews in Palestine were not the only suf- 

* Josephus, Wars, book iii, chap. 7. t Ibid. 
{Ibid., book iv, chap. 1. 



SCRIPTURE PRCPHECY. 87 

ferers in this war. At Alexandria, in Egypt, a 
conflict arose between the Jews and the other 
inhabitants of that city, in consequence of which 
the Roman governor sent two legions of soldiers 
and five thousand other troops to attack the 
quarter of the city in which the Jews resided, 
with orders to slay the people and set fire to 
their houses. " The soldiers did as they were 
bidden ; — no mercy was shown to the infants, 
and no regard had to the aged ; but they went 
on in the slaughter of persons of every age, till 
all the place was overflowed with blood, and 
fifty thousand of them lay dead upon heaps."* 

" And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates ; 
until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein 
thou trustedst, in all thy land" — The cities of the 
Jews were mostly built in commanding posi- 
tions, and strongly defended by art. This was 
especially the case with Samaria and Jerusa- 
lem, which, in the ancient mode of warfare, 
were considered almost impregnable. But 
strong natural positions and massive fortifica- 
tions could not protect an ungodly people from 
the threatened judgments of the Almighty. 
When Israel forsook the Lord, her defence de- 
parted from her, and her strong cities fell into 
* Josephus, Wars, book ii, chap. 18. 



88 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

the hands of her enemies. " In the reign of Ho- 
shea, king of Israel, Shalmaneser, king of Assy- 
ria, came up against Samaria, and besieged it ; 
and at the end of three years they took it : and the 
king of Assyria did carry away all Israel unto 
Assyria ; — because they obeyed not the voice 
of the Lord their God, but transgressed his co- 
venant, and all that Moses, the servant of the 
Lord, commanded," 2 Chron. xviii, 9-12. In 
the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, Jeru- 
salem, after a siege of two years, was taken 
by Nebuchadnezzar, who brake down its walls, 
and carried the people of Judah into captivity. 
And finally, when the Jews had filled the mea- 
sure of their iniquity, by rejecting and crucify- 
ing the Saviour, the Romans under Titus, and 
afterward under Adrian, " came and took away 
their place and nation." Every fortress was 
reduced, every city was taken, the walls of Je- 
rusalem were broken down, and the city utterly 
destroyed ; and since that period the Jews have 
never possessed a town or a strong hold in 
their native land. 

The prophecy then goes on to show the ex- 
tremities of famine to which, in the course of 
these sieges, the people would be reduced. 
" And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 89 

the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, in the 
siege, and in the straitness wherewith thine ene- 
mies shall distress theeT — This terrible denun- 
ciation has been more than once fulfilled. Six 
hundred years after the time of Moses, Samaria, 
the metropolis of the kingdom of Israel, en- 
dured the first of those dreadful sieges by which 
the two capitals of the Jewish kingdoms ap- 
pear, by some awful fatality, to have been dis- 
tinguished beyond all the other cities of the 
world. So great was the famine in the city on 
this occasion, that the most worthless substi- 
tutes for food were sold at an enormous price, 
and a woman " boiled her son and did eat him," 
2 Kings vi, 24-29. Jeremiah pathetically de- 
scribes the horrors of the famine in Jerusalem 
when it was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, and 
closes his description by saying, " The hands 
of pitiful women have sodden their own chil- 
dren ; they were their meat in the destruction 
of the daughter of my people," Lam. iv, 3-10. 
But the unparalleled sufferings of the Jews by 
famine during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, 
far exceed any thing of the kind which they, 
or any other people, ever before endured. The 
account is given by Josephus, who was him- 
self present at the siege. He says, — " The 
famine overcame all other passions ;" filial re- 



90 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

verence and parental affection were alike for- 
gotten ; " children snatched from the mouths 
of their fathers the very food they were eating ; 
and what was still more to be pitied, the mo- 
thers did the same as to their infants ; and 
when those that were most dear were perish- 
ing under their hands, they were not ashamed 
to take from them the very last drops that might 
preserve their lives."* " If so much as the 
shadow of any kind of food did anywhere ap- 
pear, a war was presently commenced, and the 
dearest friends fell to fighting one with another 
about it, snatching from each other the most 
miserable supports of life."f " Famine devour- 
ed the people by whole houses and families : 
the upper rooms were full of women and chil- 
dren that were dying of hunger, and the lanes 
of the city were full of the dead bodies of the 
aged ; the children and the young men wander- 
ed about the market-places like shadows, all 
swelled with the famine, and fell down dead 
wheresoever their misery seized them.":): — 
" Some persons were driven to such terrible 
distress as to search the common sewers and 
old dung-hills of cattle, and what they before 
could not endure so much as to see, they now 

* Wars, book v, chap. 10. t Ibid., book vi, chap. 3. 
t Ibid., book v, chap. 12. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 91 

used for food."* Little do those who are sur- 
rounded by plenty know what are the horrors 
of famine, and to what extremities human na- 
ture may be driven. But the most horrible in- 
cident yet remains to be told ; an incident in 
itself so incredible that Josephus declares he 
would not have related it, had there not 
been at the time he wrote innumerable living 
witnesses of its truth. A lady of high con- 
sideration, " eminent for her family and her 
wealth," had been plundered of all her sub- 
stance and provisions by the soldiers, who en- 
deavoured to sustain themselves during the 
famine by breaking into private houses, and 
robbing the occupants of what little food they 
had. Driven to madness and desperation by 
her hunger, she killed the child that was suck- 
ing at her breast, " and then roasted him, ate 
one half of him, and secreted the remainder." 
Allured by the smell of dressed meat, the sol- 
diers rushed into the house, and threatened to 
kill her if she did not show them what food she 
had gotten. With bitter irony she assured them 
that a fine portion had been saved for them, 
and then produced the half-eaten body of her 
child ; when they were struck with horror and 
amazement at the sight, she said to them, " This 
* Wars, book v, chap. 13. 



92 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

is mine own son, and what hath been done was 
mine own doing. Come, eat of this food, for I 
have eaten of it myself. Do not pretend to be 
either more tender than a woman, or more com- 
passionate than a mother. But if you be so 
scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, 
as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be left 
for me also." Upon this the men went out 
trembling and affrighted ; and the story being 
soon spread over the city, did so affect the 
famishing people, that they desired nothing so 
much as to die, and esteemed those already 
dead to be happy, since they had not lived 
long enough either to hear or to see such mise- 
ries.* How strikingly did these events fulfil 
the prophecies of Moses, uttered at least fifteen 
hundred years before ! " The tender and deli- 
cate woman among you, which would not ad- 
venture to set the sole of her foot upon the 
ground for delicateness and tenderness, her 
eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bo- 
som, and toward her son, and toward her daugh- 
ter, — and toward her children which she shall bear, 
for she shall eat them for the want of all things se- 
cretly in the siege and straitness wherewith 
thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates." 
Deut. xxviii, 56, 57. 

* Josephus, Wars, book vi, chapter 2. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 93 

It was also foretold that their numbers would 
be greatly dimiuished by the calamities that 
should overtake them. " Ye shall be left few in 
number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven 
for multitude" — This prediction was fearfully 
accomplished in the immense slaughters of the 
Jews which took place during their contests 
with the Romans. From the accounts furnish- 
ed by Josephus, the number of Jews who were 
destroyed in the course of the war which ter- 
minated in the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, 
must have been little less than a million and a 
half; eleven hundred thousand perished in the 
siege of Jerusalem alone. About forty-five 
years after the close of this war, the Jews in 
Egypt and Cyprus revolted, and slew upward 
of four hundred thousand of the inhabitants of 
those countries ; but although they obtained at 
first some partial successes, yet they were finally 
defeated by the Romans under Adrian, who af- 
terward became emperor of Rome. The mur- 
ders committed by the Jews in the commence- 
ment of the insurrection were fearfully retali- 
ated by the conquerors. The loss of the Jews 
was immense : according to their own tradi- 
tions, as many fell in this disastrous war as 
originally escaped from Egypt under Moses — 
six hundred thousand men. About fifteen years 



94 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

after this, the standard of revolt was again 
raised by an individual who assumed the name 
of Barchobab, The son of a star, and pretended 
to be the Messiah. The Jews at once hailed him 
as their promised deliverer, and the insurrection 
soon spread through the whole of Palestine. 
The insurgents obtained possession of the ruin- 
ed site of Jerusalem, and made themselves mas- 
ters of most of the strong holds in the country ; 
but after a contest of nearly five years, they 
were entirely subdued by the Romans under 
Adrian and Severus. The historian Dio Cas- 
sius states, that during this war five hundred 
and eighty thousand Jews were slain, besides 
those who perished by famine, disease, and 
fire. In consequence of these desolating wars, 
the people who had been " as the stars of hea- 
ven for multitude," were " left few in number ;" 
the land of Judea was almost deserted, and 
wild beasts went howling along the streets of 
the desolate cities. 

Besides the immense multitudes thus destroy- 
ed, vast numbers were reduced to slavery. Of the 
captives taken by Titus at the siege of Jerusa- 
lem " those above seventeen years of age were 
sent bound to Egypt to work in the mines ;" 
those under that age were sold, and " at a very 
low price, because the numbers sold were so 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 95 

great, and the purchasers but few." Indeed, 
so little value was set upon the captives, that 
" eleven thousand of them were suffered to per- 
ish for want of food." " The whole number 
of those who were carried captive during this 
war, amounted to ninety-seven thousand."* 
" After their last overthrow by Adrian, many 
thousands of them were sold ; and those who 
could not be sold were transported into Egypt, 
and perished by shipwreck, or famine, or were 
massacred by the inhabitants."! Fifteen hun- 
dred years before this, when the Israelites had 
just been triumphantly delivered from the bond- 
age of Egypt, Moses specified among the judg- 
ments that should befall them, that they should 
again be carried into Egypt as slaves, and in 
such numbers that purchasers should not be 
found for them : — " And the Lord shall bring 
thee into Egypt again with ships ; and there ye 
shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and 
for bondwomen, and no man shall buy you" 
" Egypt, indeed, was the great slave mart of 
ancient times, and several of the conquerors of 
the Jews had before sent, at least, a large pro- 
portion of their captives thither to be sold."J 

* Josephus, Wars, book vi, chapters 8 and 9. 
t St. Jerome, as quoted by Bishop Newton. 
X Pictorial Bible. 



96 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

u I will bring your sanctuaries into desolation" 
Lev. xxvi, 31. — The word " sanctuaries," is 
here used to denote those places which were 
set apart for the service and worship of God, 
especially the temple. These were destroyed 
when Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans. 
From 2 Kings xxv, 8, 9, we learn that they 
" burned the house of the Lord ;" and in Psalm 
lxiv, 7, 8, it is said, — 

" They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, 
They have defiled by casting down the dwelling-place 

of thy name to the ground. 
They said in their hearts, ' Let us destroy them together :' 
They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the 
land." 

On the return of the Jews from the Babylonish 
captivity, the temple was rebuilt, and was stand- 
ing when Jerusalem was besieged by the Ro- 
mans. When the city was taken, the Roman 
commander was greatly desirous to preserve 
this building from the general destruction ; 
" But Cesar could not save what God had doom'd," 

and, in spite of his utmost efforts, the second 
temple shared the fate of its predecessor. 

" An d ye shall be plucked from off the land 
vjhither thou goest to possess it." — This predic- 
tion was accomplished, first, when Shalmanezer 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 97 

" carried Israel away into Assyria," (2 Kings 
xvii, 6,) again, when Nebuchadnezzar carried 
Judah captive to Babylon, and, finally, when 
the great body of the Jews were driven out of 
their country by the Romans under Titus and 
Adrian. That he might effectually destroy 
any hopes the Jews might still entertain of 
re-establishing themselves in Palestine, Adrian 
founded a new city on the site of Jerusalem, 
and peopled it with foreigners. He also placed 
the image of a swine over one of the gates ; 
and, on pain of death, prohibited any Jew from 
entering the city, or even approaching so near 
as to view from a distance its sacred height. 
" Tertullian and Jerome say, they were pro- 
hibited from entering Judea."* It is certain 
that since that period comparatively few Jews 
have been found there. " While the country 
has been successfully overrun by Greeks, 
Christians, Saracens, and Turks, the ancient 
poprietors of the soil have alone been denied a 
possession therein."! Sandys, who visited 
Palestine in 1611, says, the country " is for the 
most part now inhabited by Moores and Arabi- 
ans ; — Turkes there be few, but many Greekes, 
with other Christians of all sects and nations. 
Here be also some Iewes, yet inherit they no 
* Bishop Newton. t Pictorial Bible. 



98 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

part of the land, but in their owne country do 
live as aliens.'' The number of Jews now liv- 
ing in Palestine is probably not more than 
twelve thousand, of whom about one half are to 
be found in Jerusalem, and the remainder prin- 
cipally at Hebron, Tiberias, and Saphet, these 
four places being regarded by them with pecu- 
liar and superstitious veneration. 

That, after their expulsion, a miserable rem- 
nant would continue to be found in the land of 
their fathers, was intimated by the prophet, 
who in the following words clearly foretold the 
abject condition to which they should be re- 
duced, and the haughty deportment of their 
rulers toward them : — " The stranger that is 
within thee shall get up above thee very high, and 
thou shalt come down very low." — The condition 
of the Jews in Palestine has for many centu- 
ries furnished a striking commentary on this 
prediction. " They have not only lived as 
aliens in the land that was once their own, but 
of all the aliens found in that land, they are the 
most oppressed and degraded."* " Their condi- 
tion is more insecure, and exposed to insult and 
oppression, than in Egypt and Syria, from the 
frequent lawless and oppressive conduct of the 
governors and chiefs."! Van Egmont and Hey- 

# Pictorial Bible. t Game's Letters from the East. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 99 

nam, speaking of the Jews at Saphet, observes : 
— " The Turks, by a variety of oppressions, 
fines, and the like unjust practices, squeeze 
them to such a degree that they may be said to 
pay for the very air they breathe. They lead 
the poorest and most deplorable life that can 
be conceived." The author of " Three Weeks 
in Palestine" thus describes their condition in 
Jerusalem : — " Every thing about them exhi- 
bited signs of depression and misery : they are 
outcasts from the common rights and sympa- 
thies of man ; oppressed and despised alike by 
' Mohammedans and Christians." They are 
said to consist chiefly of persons advanced in 
life, who come to Palestine from various parts 
of the earth, and submit to these oppressions, 
that they may have the satisfaction of spending 
their remaining days in the land of Israel, and 
lay their bones in the sepulchres of their fathers. 

They were not only to be thrust out of their 
own land, but also to be dispersed through the 
whole world. " The Lord shall scatter thee 
among all people, from one end of the earth even 
unto the other." — And where on the face of the 
earth is there a trading nation in which the Jews 
are unknown ? They have been spread over 
every province of the habitable globe ; they 



100 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

have used almost every tongue, have lived in 
every climate, and under every form of govern- 
ment. " Neither mountains, nor rivers, nor 
deserts, nor oceans, — which are the boundaries 
of other nations, — have terminated their wan- 
derings." They abound in Turkey, Poland, 
Holland, Russia, Prussia, Austria, Germany, 
and the northern states of Africa, especially 
Tunis and Morocco. In Italy, Portugal, France, 
Britain, Hindostan, Persia, Egypt, and the 
United States, they are more thinly scattered. 
They have long been established in China, 
which abhors the foreigner, and in Abyssinia, 
which it is almost as difficult to reach as to 
quit. They are found also in New-Holland, 
Japan, and the West Indies ; in Switzerland, 
Sweden, and the isles of Greece ; on the rock 
of Gibraltar, and at the Cape of Good Hope. 
They have drunk of the Tiber, the Thames, and 
the Tigris ; of the Niger, the Ganges, and the 
Mississippi. " They have trodden the snows 
of Siberia, and the sands of the burning desert ; 
and the European traveller hears of their exist- 
ence in regions which he cannot reach, — even 
in the very interior of Africa, south of Timbuc- 
too." In a word, they are to be found every- 
where, and are everywhere living witnesses of 
the divine foresight, government, and veracity. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 101 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE JEWS I 

CONCLUDED. 

The Jews, according to the prophecy, are everywhere persecuted 
and oppressed — Their treatment by Mohammed and his followers 
—Their treatment in Christian countries, Spain, Germany, France, 
England — Striking accordance between the language of prophe- 
cy and the facts of history — The Jews are violently deprived 
of their children — They become a proverb and by- word among all 
people — Were often driven to desperation by their calamities — 
The greatness and duration of their plagues — Their wonderful 
preservation in spite of every effort to destroy them — While the 
Jews have been preserved, the great nations who formerly op- 
pressed them are utterly extinct — The Jews a standing miracle 
and a perpetual evidence of the truth of the Bible — Promises of 
their conversion — Probable causes why so few have as yet been 
converted — Increase of interest on the subject of their conver- 
sion — Extracts from the report of a deputation sent by the Church 
of Scotland to visit the Jews in various parts of the world, and 
ascertain the prospects of a mission among them — The Jews have 
greater claims upon Christians than have any other people — Ex- 
tract from St. Paul— Hymn by Charles Wesley. 

It is our purpose in this chapter to follow 
the Jews in their dispersion, and exhibit the 
fulfilment of the prophecies which relate to the 
treatment they should meet with in the various 
countries whither they were driven. 

" And among these nations shah thou have no 
ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest, 
but the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart, 
and failing of eyes r and sorrow of mind : — and 



102 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore." 
■ — How remarkably have these predictions been 
accomplished in the entire history of the Jews 
since their final dispersion ! The terrible 
calamities which befell them in their contests 
with the power of Rome were but " the begin- 
ning of sorrows." Their expulsion from Judea 
was only the prelude to the various banish- 
ments, persecutions, and oppressions which in 
every age, and in almost every part of the world, 
have been the lot of this unhappy race. Ter- 
tullian, who wrote in the latter part of the se- 
cond century, thus describes the general con- 
dition of the Jews in his day : — " Dispersed 
and vagabond, exiled from their native soil and 
air, they wander over the face of the earth, 
without a king, human or divine ; and even as 
strangers, they are not permitted to salute with 
their footsteps their native land." 

Such continued to be their condition until 
about A. D. 360, when they were elated with 
the prospect of being again restored to their 
own country. Julian, the Roman emperor, 
having abjured the Christian faith, and wishing 
to show his opposition to Christianity, and to 
falsify the prediction of Christ respecting Jeru- 
salem, (Luke xxi, 24,) issued an edict for the 
rebuilding of the temple, and the restoration 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 103 

of the Jewish worship in all its original splen- 
dour. The whole Jewish world was in com- 
motion. The scattered tribes Hocked from the 
most distant quarters to the holy city, in order 
to be present and help forward the great national 
work. Their property, as well as their per- 
sonal exertions, were freely contributed. The 
materials for the building were provided, and 
workmen were already employed in digging 
the foundations, when, suddenly, flames of fire 
came bursting from the ground, accompanied 
with the most frightful explosions. No in- 
ducement could prevail on the labourers to 
continue a work which appeared to excite 
the anger of Heaven. The enterprise was 
abandoned as being at once hopeless and im- 
pious ; and in the death of Julian, who about 
the same time was slain in battle by the Per- 
sians, the Christian world beheld the ven- 
geance of God, and the Jew the extinction of all 
his hopes. 

Under the successors of Julian, the edict of 
Adrian against the Jews was renewed, and un- 
til the seventh century they durst not so much 
as come near to bewail the desolation of their 
city, without first bribing the Roman guards 
who were placed there to prohibit their ap- 
proach. Throughout the Roman empire they 



104 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

were deprived of most of the privileges of citi- 
zens; their synagogues were frequently de- 
stroyed by mobs ; they were forbidden by law 
to celebrate some of their religious festivals ; 
they were restricted in the right of bequeathing 
their property ; and their testimony was not 
admitted in courts of justice in any cause in 
which a Christian was interested, not even if a 
Jew were himself a party in the suit. In the 
fifth century, the Jews of Alexandria, to the 
number of about forty thousand, were expelled 
from the city ; their synagogues demolished, 
and their houses plundered by the populace.* 

When Mohammed commenced his career of 
imposture and conquest, and the valleys of 
Arabia rung with the triumphant battle-cry of 
his followers, The Koran or death ! the Jews 
of that country were among the first of whom 
he endeavoured to make proselytes ; and failing 
in his efforts, they became the first victims of 
his sanguinary teaching. The favour with 
which he was at first disposed to view them, 
was, by their persevering refusal to embrace 
his religion, converted into implacable hatred, 
with which he pursued them to the last mo- 
ment of his life. The storm first fell upon a 
colony of Jews at Medina, who, after defending 
* Gibbon's Decline and Fall. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 105 

themselves for fifteen days, were compelled to 
surrender. Mohammed issued immediate or- 
ders for a general massacre, and it was with 
extreme reluctance that he yielded to the im- 
portunity of his allies, and consented to spare 
the lives of his captives. But their property 
was confiscated, and the wretched band of se- 
ven hundred exiles, with their wives and chil- 
dren, were driven out of the country to seek a 
refuge on the confines of Syria. At another 
place, seven hundred Jews, who had surrender- 
ed at discretion, were dragged in chains to the 
market place, and there put to death ; their 
wives and children were sold for slaves, and 
their possessions seized by the conquerors. In 
one district, the Jewish shepherds and husband- 
men were allowed a precarious toleration, be- 
ing permitted, during the pleasure of the con- 
queror, to remain and cultivate their grounds 
on condition of paying him one half of the pro- 
duce : but, in the reign of Omar, the successor 
of Mohammed, these also were banished the 
country. The spirit of rancour and hostility 
which the impostor himself manifested toward 
the Jews he also infused into the hearts of his 
followers, who, except where interest prompted 
a different course, never failed to imitate his 
example. In all Mohammedan countries no 



106 6CRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

class of persons have been so universally op- 
pressed and degraded as the unfortunate Jews. 
In many parts of the East the tyranny exer- 
cised over them is still so severe as to afford 
at the present time a literal fulfilment of the 
prediction, " Thy life shall hang in doubt before 
thee, and thou shalt have fear day and night, and 
shall have none assurance of thy life" " For 
the murder of a Jew, a Persian has only to cut 
around a finger, so as to draw blood, and the 
offence is expiated."* 

Nor has their condition been more tolerable 
in lands that are called Christian. They have 
found the adherents of popery as cruel, oppres- 
sive, and intolerant, as the followers of the false 
prophet, as will be seen by the following ac- 
count of their treatment in some of the princi- 
pal countries of Europe. 

In Spain, Sisebut, who reigned in the begin- 
ning of the seventh century, raised a cruel per- 
secution against the Jews, who were then very 
numerous in that country, and, having been for 
some time tolerated, if not protected, by the 
government, appear to have attained a consider- 
able degree of prosperity. But the wealth 
which they had accumulated by trade and the 
* Alexander's Travels from India to England. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 107 

management of the finances, invited the avarice 
of their masters ; and they might be oppressed 
without danger, as they had lost the use, and 
even the remembrance of arms. Ninety thou- 
sand Jews were compelled to receive baptism ; 
the fortunes of those who refused to receive 
that rite were confiscated, their bodies were 
tortured, and it seems doubtful whether they 
were permitted to leave the country. The ex- 
cessive zeal of the king was moderated even 
by the clergy of Spain, who declared that bap- 
tism ought not to be forcibly administered ; yet, 
with a singular inconsistency, they decided 
that those Jews who had already been baptized, 
should be constrained to observe the outward 
rites of a religion which they disbelieved and 
detested.* But this tolerant spirit soon evapo- 
rated, and not many years elapsed before the 
Jews were made the victims of another severe 
persecution. Laws were enacted, prohibiting, 
under the severest penalties, the observance of 
any of the festivals or peculiar rites of Juda- 
ism. For observing the passover, the new 
moon, or the feast of tabernacles, for making a 
distinction in meats, — for violating the Chris- 
tian sabbath, or the festivals of the church, 
either by working in the fields or manufactures, 
* Gibbon's Roman Empire. 



108 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

— the general punishment was one hundred 
lashes on the naked body ; after this the offender 
was to be put in chains, banished, and his pro- 
perty confiscated to the lord of the soil. They 
were not allowed to marry without a clause in 
the act of dower that both parties would be- 
come Christians ; and all who offended against 
this law, even the parents concerned in such 
marriage, were to be fined or scourged. The 
Jew who read, or allowed his children to read. 
Dooks written against Christianity, suffered one 
hundred lashes ; on the second offence the 
lashes were repeated, the offenders banished, 
and their property confiscated. Several othei 
enactments of a similar character also disgraced 
these statutes ; and if they were not everywhere 
fully carried into effect, they were only pre- 
vented from being so by their extreme and hor- 
rible cruelty. A few years after this, the 
Moors invaded and effected the conquest of 
Spain, in which they were materially assisted 
by the Jews, and in consequence, that people 
were regarded with high favour during the 
continuance of the Moorish government in that 
country, which was upward of three hundred 
years. During this period the Jews rapidly 
increased in numbers, wealth, and influence. 
They were the most enlightened class in the 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 109 

kingdom ; they were the cultivators and posses- 
sors of the soil j they were distinguished for 
their skill as physicians, and were not unfre- 
quently promoted to high and responsible offices 
in the state. 

On the decay of the Mohammedan power, 
and the re-establishment of popery, the superior 
education, the business talents, the wealth and 
industry of the Jewish population, rendered 
them too important a class of the community to 
allow their rights to be rashly interfered with, 
in a country where the nobles were engaged 
almost wholly in war, and the lower orders 
were sunk in the deepest degradation. In the 
thirteenth century, however, the condition of 
the Jews began to decline. The superstitions 
of the people, and the animosities of the 
priests were bitterly directed against them, 
and constant attempts were made to encroach 
upon their rights. They were declared inca- 
pable of civil offices ; they were compelled to 
attend a Christian church three times a year ; 
and were required to live in certain specified 
streets, and thenceforth particular districts were 
known in every city as the Jews' quarter. 
These petty annoyances, however, afforded but 
a feeble presage of the fearful hurricane that 
at last arose. The attack commenced at Se- 



110 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

ville, in 1391. The populace, having been in- 
cited by a sermon preached in the cathedral by 
the archbishop, made a general assault upon 
the Jews' quarter, and of seven thousand fami- 
lies, upward of one half were killed, while the 
remainder sought safety by a pretended con- 
version to Christianity. Similar scenes took 
place in Cordova, Toledo, Valencia, and in all 
the cities where large numbers of Jews were 
found. Many thousands were butchered ; not a 
few left the kingdom, seeking a refuge in Italy, 
Turkey, and the states of Barbary ; and it is 
calculated that two hundred thousand w T ere 
forced into a profession of Christianity. As 
soon as the violence of the storm had passed 
over, many of these new converts relapsed into 
Judaism, and many more, while they attended 
the public services of the church, continued to 
observe in private the usages of their ancient 
religion. To put an effectual stop to this, the 
pope issued a bull for the establishment of the 
inquisition in Spain. This horrible tribunal 
established its head quarters at Seville ; but 
four inferior inquisitions were also erected in 
other places. It was invested with power to 
summon every individual suspected of secret 
attachment to Judaism ; and such was the un- 
sparing severity with which it proceeded, that, 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. Ill 

in the course of a single year, upward of two 
thousand persons were put to death in Seville 
and the immediately surrounding country ; seve- 
ral were imprisoned for life, and seventeen thou- 
sand suffered lighter punishments. At last a 
large stone building was constructed for con- 
taining a large number of prisoners ; combusti- 
ble materials were laid around the outside of 
the walls, while the wretched inmates were 
left to perish by a lingering death. The au- 
thority of the inquisition extended only over 
those Jews who, having professed the Catholic 
faith to avoid persecution, were suspected of 
insincerity in their attachment to it. Those 
who had never renounced Judaism, continued 
as yet to enjoy comparative security. But their 
turn soon came. Ferdinand and Isabella, hav- 
ing succeeded in expelling the Moors from 
Spain, w r ere ambitious of the glory of deliver- 
ing the land from every taint of heresy. To 
effect this, nothing was now wanting but the 
expulsion of the Jews. Accordingly, in 1492 
an order was given that every unbaptized Jew 
should leave the country within four months ; all 
who remained after that period were to be put to 
death. Upon the issuing of this edict, the minds 
of the unhappy people were filled with astonish- 
ment and horror. From one end of Spain to 



112 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

the other the voice of lamentation was lifted 
up. Every appeal to the justice or mercy of 
Ferdinand, or his queen, was alike in vain. 
Banishment or conversion were the only alter- 
natives. The Jews on this occasion manifest- 
ed their attachment to their religion by prefer- 
ring it to every thing else. Upward of three 
hundred thousand left all that was dear to them 
on earth, and went forth in search of lands 
where they might be allowed to worship the 
God of their fathers in peace.* 

This calamity was considered by the Jews 
almost as dreadful as the capture and ruin of 
Jerusalem. Misfortune continued to follow the 
exiles wherever they went. The account of 
their sufferings is heart rending ; our limits 
permit us only to mention in general, that the 
richer part of them withdrew first to Portu- 
gal, where the Jewish faith had hitherto been 
tolerated, and which country they were permit- 
ted to enter on paying a toll of eight crusados 
a head. But the contagious influence of the 
proceedings in Spain soon extended to the sis- 
ter kingdom ; and the wretched exiles, after 
being made the objects of new forms of oppres- 
sion and injustice, were at last, under circum- 
stances of extreme cruelty, expelled from that 
* Encyclopedia Brittannica. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 113 

country also. Others, who directed their course 
to the states of Barbary and Morocco, were sub- 
jected to the horrors of shipwreck, famine, and 
pestilence ; some were set ashore on desert 
islands by the inhuman ship owners, and some 
were sold as slaves. Some went to Italy, 
where the hardest fate of all awaited them, in 
the cruel treatment they met with from their 
own countrymen, who inhospitably refused to 
receive them ; thousands lay perishing with 
hunger on the shore, till even the pope [Alex. 
VI.] interfered by a sentence of banishment 
against the resident Jews, which was, however, 
revoked on their paying a considerable sum. 
But notwithstanding all the sufferings to which 
they were exposed, and which so considerably 
diminished their numbers, large communities 
were formed by the descendants of the exiles 
in Barbary, Turkey, and Italy. In Spain there 
were now no professed Jews, nor have they 
since been tolerated in that country ; with the 
exception of three or four thousand, who reside 
at Gibraltar, under the protection of Great Bri- 
tain. 

In Germany, although the Jews gradually 
became the objects of aversion to all classes, 
the protection of the emperors, and the ordi- 
nances of the popes, preserved them from gene- 
8 



114 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

ral attack until the time of the crusades. When 
the horde of fanatics, who, in the year 1096, 
under the command of Peter the Hermit, com- 
menced the first crusade, were assembled near 
Treves, a city on the banks of the Rhine, it 
was suggested that before they attempted to 
rescue the sepulchre of Christ from the hands 
of the infidels, they ought to take vengeance 
on those worse unbelievers who had been his 
murderers. With one impulse they rushed into 
the city. The choice of death or conversion 
was given to the miserable Jews, and only a 
few escaped the general massacre. Fathers 
presented their breasts to the sword, after hav- 
ing slain their own children to prevent their 
being brought up as Christians, and the women, 
to escape the brutality of the soldiers, fastened 
stones to their bodies, and threw themselves 
into the river. Similar scenes were repeated 
in Cologne, Mentz, Worms, and in all the cities 
of the Rhine ; and the progress of the armies 
was marked by the blood of the Jews, till they 
reached the plains of Hungary. Upon a mode- 
rate computation, not less than seventeen thou- 
sand are supposed to have perished. The 
minds of those who escaped were filled with 
consternation, and many fled to Siberia, Mora- 
via, and Poland. Some, however, still clung 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 115 

to the land which gave them birth, and fifty 
years of comparative quiet elapsed for them to 
multiply again their devoted race, and acquire 
wealth to undergo their inalienable doom of 
pillage and massacre. The second crusaders 
in 1146 attacked them with the same perse- 
cuting spirit as their predecessors ; but upon 
this occasion the greater part saved themselves 
by a timely flight. A frightful havoc, how- 
ever, took place among the Jews in the cities of 
Cologne, Mentz, Worms, Spires, and Strasburg. 
From the time of the crusades the condition of 
the Jews in Germany continued unsettled and 
degraded. History abounds with instances of 
the injustice which they suffered from the ra- 
pacity of the princes, and the tumultuous as- 
saults of the people. From certain states and 
cities they were interdicted altogether. In 
others they had a right of residing, and a par- 
ticular part of the city was assigned them ; but 
they were frequently expelled from the streets 
to which they had a legal right, in order that a 
sum of money might be extorted from them for 
permission to return to their dwellings. The 
popular fury was ever ready to break out 
against them, and needy princes held out the 
threat that unless their coffers were replenish- 
ed by contributions from*the Jews, an incensed 



116 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

populace would be let loose upon them. Upon 
other occasions the necessity of their conver- 
sion was insisted upon, and they were com- 
pelled to pay large sums to avoid being forcibly 
baptized. Enthusiasts arose, who considered 
themselves commissioned by Heaven to pro- 
claim war against this unhappy people. In the 
thirteenth century, a nobleman, named Rhind- 
fleish, proceeded through many of the most pop- 
ulous towns of Germany, followed by a multi- 
tude who destroyed whole communities of Jews. 
In 1337, a peasant, named Armdler, pursued 
a similar course, till his atrocities awaked the 
tardy justice of the emperor, by whom he was 
put to death. A few years later, when the 
whole of Europe was desolated by a plague, it 
was reported in Germany, that the Jews had 
caused the plague by poisoning the public 
wells. The effect of this report was terrible. 
At Basle, the adult Jews were put in a vessel 
on the Rhine, which was set on fire ; the chil- 
dren being spared that they might be educated 
as Christians. It would be tedious to relate 
the manner in which the Jews were put to death 
in other cities ; but from Switzerland to Sibe- 
ria the land was drenched with innocent blood.* 

* "About this time, [1349,] the Jews throughout the 
world were arrested and burned, and their fortune* con- 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 117 

For some centuries after this, little change was 
effected in the condition of the Jews in Ger- 
many. The laws enacted by Frederick the 
Great, in 1750, for the regulation of his Jewish 
subjects, were of the most intolerant descrip- 
tion. 

In France, under Pepin, Charlemagne, and 
their immediate successors, the Jews enjoyed 
the same protection and privileges as other 
persons. On account of their superior intelli- 
gence and education, they were frequently pro- 
moted to offices of trust : they were the physi- 
cians, and the ministers of finance to nobles and 
kings ; they engrossed much of the foreign 
commerce ; their vessels crowded the ports, and 
their merchandize encumbered the quays of the 
seaports. This state of prosperity continued 
with little abatement until the tenth century, 
when the Jews began rapidly to decline from a 
learned, and influential, and powerful class of 
the community, to miserable outcasts, the com- 
mon prey of clergy, nobles, and citizens ; and 
existing in a state worse than slavery itself. 

fiscated by those lords under whose jurisdiction they had 
lived, except at Avignon, and the territories of the church 
dependant on the pope. Each poor Jew, when he was 
able to hide himself and arrive in that country, esteemed 
himself safe." — Froissarfs Chronicles, 



118 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Even in this wretched situation, though de- 
prived of every thing else, and denied the com- 
mon rights of humanity, they were still pos- 
sessed of gold. By their loans to the nobles, 
they had a hold on most of the estates of the 
country ; they had also articles of value in 
pawn from all classes of the community ; even 
the priests, when in want of money, scrupled 
not to pledge to them the sacred vessels of the 
churches. The people were galled by the fact 
that they stood in the relation of debtor to this 
despised race ; and the usurious interest exact- 
ed by the Jews, increased the popular odium 
against them. In the year 1180, Philip II. 
issued a decree annulling all debts due to the 
Jews, and requiring them to surrender all the 
pledges held by them. A few years after, an- 
other edict was issued, which confiscated all 
their immoveable property, and commanded 
them immediately to sell all their moveables, and 
leave the country. Obliged to part with their 
effects at the lowest prices, they sadly depart- 
ed, bearing with them little but their destitute 
wives and children, from the scenes of their 
birth and infancy. Before twenty years had 
elapsed, the necessities of the king induced 
him to allow the Jews, on payment of a sum 
of money, to re-enter France, which they did in 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 119 

great numbers. The necessities, the cruelty, 
or superstition of succeeding kings, varied the 
modes of Jewish persecution. Louis VIII. for- 
bid them receiving interest from their debtors. 
Louis IX. annulled by law one third of all 
debts due them ; he also published an edict for 
the destruction of their sacred books [the Tal- 
mud] of which twenty-four carts full were burn- 
ed in the city of Paris. By other laws they 
were forbidden to hold social intercourse with 
Christians. In the province of Brittany all debts 
due to them were annulled ; those who held 
property belonging to them were allowed to re- 
tain it ; and no punishment could be inflicted 
on any person for killing a Jew. In 1239, the 
Jews of Paris, Orleans, and several other ci- 
ties, were attacked by mobs who committed 
frightful ravages. To complete their misery, 
and to mark them out as objects of inevitable 
persecution, they were compelled to wear a 
conspicuous brand upon their dress ; this con- 
sisted of a piece of blue cloth sewed on the 
front and back of the garment, and was to be 
worn by both sexes. In France, as in Germa- 
ny, monstrous reports were circulated of their 
sacrilege and cruelty. They were accused of 
throwing poison into the rivers, of practising 
magic, and of holding correspondence with in- 



120 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

fidel kings. They were proscribed, plundered, 
burned to death. In some places they were 
compelled by torture to confess themselves 
guilty, and on their confession were burned 
In other places all Jews were burned without 
distinction. At Chinon a deep ditch was dug, 
an enormous pile raised, and one hundred and 
sixty of both sexes burned together. Those 
who survived the persecution, purchased their 
lives by the payment of a large sum of money ; 
and then, as the height of mercy, were permit- 
ted to collect the rest of their effects and leave 
the kingdom. Yet still they sought — even paid 
a price — to live in a land that oppressed them. 
Unhappy race ! the earth, perhaps, afforded them 
no safer asylum. Six times were they banish- 
ed from the country : as many times did they 
purchase permission to return ; but it was only 
that they might heap up new treasures to be- 
come again the victims of avarice and super- 
stition. At length, in the year 1397, during 
the reign of Charles VI., they were, for the 
seventh and last time, commanded to quit the 
kingdom. This sentence was rigidly enforced ; 
the greater part of the exiles withdrew into 
Germany, Italy, and Poland ; and for several 
centuries after, very few Jews were found in 
France, 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 121 

In England, though from interested motives 
they were for a time tolerated by the monarchs, 
the Jews became objects of popular hatred, 
partly from superstitious motives, and partly 
from the odium which was at that time attach- 
ed to the custom of lending money upon inte- 
rest, as well as from the rigour with which 
the practice was exercised by them. They, 
however, suffered but little, except from the 
exactions of the sovereigns, until the accession 
of Richard I. On the coronation of that mon- 
arch, some Jews, supposing themselves to be 
unknown, had incautiously ventured, contrary 
to an express prohibition, to attend as specta- 
tors of the ceremony. Being discovered, an 
attack was made upon them by the populace, 
which ended in a general assault upon the 
Jews. Their houses were broken open and 
pillaged, and in many instances set on fire. 
Richard in vain endeavoured to put a stop to 
the tumult, which continued to rage for two 
days ; and after it had subsided, such was the 
state of the public feeling, that the government 
either would not, or dared not, bring to justice 
those who had been engaged in it. Intelli- 
gence of what had been done by the populace 
of London soon spread through the country, 
and similar outrages took place in Norwich, 



122 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Stamford, and several other towns, in which 
the Jews were plundered, maltreated, and slain. 
The country was swarming with soldiers who 
were preparing to join the crusade to the Holy 
Land, and who considered themselves justified 
in robbing the rich Jews, to aid them in their 
pilgrimage. At York, the Jews took refuge in 
the castle, and made a vigorous defence ; but 
finding their situation hopeless, they destroyed 
every thing of value they possessed, cut the 
throats of their wives and children, set fire to 
the castle, and then killed themselves. During 
the two following reigns, the history of Eng- 
land abounds in instances of the oppressions to 
which the Jews were subject, and of the vast 
sums extorted from them by the necessities of 
the monarchs. The tyrannical proceedings 
of King John toward this*unhappy race are 
well known, and in particular, his ordering that 
a rich Jew of Bristol should lose a tooth daily 
till he paid ten thousand marks.* The Jew 
lost seven teeth before he yielded. Their situa- 
tion was in no degree improved under Henry 
III. The superstitions of the people, and the 
necessities of the government, subjected them 
to every varied form of contumely and wrong. 
After the king had repeated his extortions so 
* About eighty thousand dollars. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 123 

frequently that the Jews made the vain threat 
of leaving the kingdom, he sold them to his 
brother for five thousand marks, with full power 
over their persons and property. At last, in 
the reign of Edward I., without any known 
pretext afforded by their conduct, an edict was 
issued for their expulsion from the country al- 
together ; and after having been deprived of all 
their possessions, the wretched race, amid the 
mockery and triumph of the common people, 
proceeded to the shore, and finally left the 
island. The number of the exiles amounted to 
fifteen, or as some say, sixteen thousand. The 
Jews were not permitted to return to England 
until the reign of Cromwell, nearly four hun- 
dred years after. 

The foregoing particulars form but a small 
portion of the dark catalogue of the calamities 
and persecutions which have befallen this un- 
happy race. But enough has been said to 
show how strikingly the facts of history have 
corresponded with the language of prophecy. 
Indeed, it would be scarcely possible to sum up 
the leading particulars of the Jewish history 
since the destruction of Jerusalem, in more 
graphic and forcible language than that of the 
sacred oracle which predicted their fate :— - 



124 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

" They have been plucked out of their own land, and 
scattered among all people from one end of the earth 
even to the other. And among these nations they 
have had no case, neither has the sole of their foot 
had rest ; but the Lord has given them a trembling 
heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. 
They have been oppressed and spoiled ; their lives 
have hung in doubt before them ; they have feared 
day and night, and have had no assurance of their 
lives." 

But there are some further particulars in the 
prophecy which will require our notice. One 
of the judgments which Moses denounced 
against the Jews was, that they should be vio- 
lently deprived of their children : — " Thy sons 
and thy daughters shall be given to another peo- 
ple, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with long- 
ing for them all the day long" When Jerusa- 
lem was taken by Titus, all the captives under 
seventeen years of age, amounting to many 
thousands, were taken from their parents and 
sold into slavery. And in modern times, es- 
pecially in France, Germany, Spain, and Por- 
tugal, the children of Jews have often been for- 
cibly taken away and given in charge of the 
priests, that they might be educated as Chris- 
tians. When the king of Portugal published 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 125 

the decree for the banishment of the Jews from 
his kingdom, " he also issued a secret order to 
seize all the children under fourteen years of 
age ; to tear them from the arms — the bosoms 
of their parents, and disperse them through the 
country, to be baptized and brought up as Chris- 
tians. The secret transpired, and lest they 
should conceal their children, it was instantly 
put into execution."* How great a calamity 
the Jews considered this, may be judged from 
the fact, that many parents who were unable 
to conceal their children, destroyed them with 
their own hands : frantic mothers threw their 
infants into wells and rivers, choosing rather to 
see them perish before their eyes, than fall into 
the hands of their enemies, to be educated in 
any other religion than their own. 

Moses also predicted that the Jews should be- 
come " an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word 
among all nations, whither the Lord should lead 
them ;" and Jeremiah declared that they should 
be " a reproach, a proverb, a taunt, and a curse 
in all places "\ And such has been the case. 
Among Christians, Mohammedans, and pagans, 
they have been the objects not only of oppres- 
sion and persecution, but also of the bitterest 
* Millqpan. t Jeremiah xsiv, 9. 



126 SCRIPTURE PROPHECV. 

scorn and contempt. Among all nations, the cun- 
ning, the avarice, and the usury of the Jews are 
proverbial ; and their very name has been used 
as a term of peculiar reproach and infamy. In 
Spain it was once made a penal offence to call 
a man a Jew. Mr. Lane informs us that the 
Egyptians, when quarreling, lavish upon each 
other the vilest names, such as " son of a dog, 
pig," and an appellation which they think 
worse than any of these, namely, " Jew." The 
same writer also states, that it is common to 
hear an Arab abuse his jaded ass, and after 
applying to him various opprobrious epithets, 
end by calling the beast a Jew.* The empe- 
ror Constantine, in a public document, terms the 
Jews the most hateful of all people. f In most 
countries they have been without a character 
or place in society. The very lowest, the 
dregs of the population, scorned fellowship with 
them, and avoided them as a contamination. 
They have been required to live in particular 
streets, separate from the rest of the inhabit- 
ants,:); and compelled to bear about with them 

* Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. 

t Rev. H. H. Millman. 

% That portion of the city of London to which the Jews 
were formerly restricted still goes by the name of the Old 
Jewry. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 127 

the mark of degradation, and expose themselves 
to the insults of the populace by wearing a 
brand on their dress, a cap of a peculiar colour, 
or some other badge of distinction. In short, 
they have been 

" Scattered abroad 
Earth's scorn and hissing ; to the race of men 
A loathsome proverb ; spurned by every foot ; 
And cursed by every tongue ; their heritage 
And birthright bondage ; and their very brows 
Bearing, like Cain's, the outcast's mark of hate." 

It was foretold that their afflictions should be 
such that they should be mad for the sight of their 
eyes which they should see : — and what language 
can better describe the desperation to which 
they were reduced, and the agony of mind they 
endured when they were dying of hunger by 
thousands in the streets of Jerusalem — when 
they saw their holy temple wrapped in flames, 
and felt that they were forsaken of God — when 
they slew their wives and children, and afterward 
killed themselves, to avoid falling into the hands 
of their ferocious foes — when their children 
were torn from their arms — when they were 
stripped of their possessions, and driven as 
houseless wanderers from the land of their 
birth, and the homes of their youth, to seek a 
refuge they knew not whither ? Calamities 



128 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

such as they have endured never yet fell to the 
lot of any other people. 

Finally, it was declared that their plagues 
should be wonderful — even great plagues — and of 
long continuance. How great and wonderful 
their plagues have been, we have already 
shown : but their greatness is not more won- 
derful than their duration. For nearly eighteen 
centuries have this devoted people " drunk at 
the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury ; they 
have drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, 
and wrung them out ;" and although in most 
countries their condition is now infinitely supe- 
rior to what it formerly was, they are still a 
dispersed and generally despised people ; and 
in many lands the hand of the oppressor is yet 
heavy upon them. 

What other nation has sufTerd so much, and 
yet endured so long ? Nay, what other nation, 
except the Arabs, has subsisted a distinct and 
unmixed people in their own country, so long 
as the Jews have done while dispersed among 
all countries ? What principle of vitality has 
kept them alive under the " great fight of afflic- 
tion" which they have had to encounter ? What 
is it that has enabled them to sustain, for ages, 
such a weight of oppression without being an- 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 129 

nihilated by it ? What but the power and pro- 
vidence of that God who had decreed both their 
calamities and their continuance 1 " I will 
scatter them," said Jehovah, " among the hea- 
then, and will draw out a sword after them. 
And yet for all that, when they be in the land 
of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither 
will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to 
break my covenant vrith them, for I am the Lord 
their God," Levit. xxvi, 33, 44. " I will sift 
the house of Israel among all nations, like as 
corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least 
grain fall upon the earth" Amos ix, 9. And 
again, " I will make a full end of all the nations 
whither I have driven them : but I will not 
make a full end of them" Jer. xlvi, 28. The 
promise of the Eternal was thus pledged for 
their preservation, and the utmost efforts of the 
uncircumcised have been unable to effect their 
destruction. Kings have employed the severi- 
ty of their edicts, and the hands of the execu- 
tioner ; they have been murdered by thousands 
in popular tumults, robbed of their property, 
and bereaved of their children. They have 
from age to age run through misery and oppres- 
sion, and torrents of their own blood. Perse- 
cution has unsheathed the sword, and lighted 
the fagot ; papal superstition and Mohammedan 
9 



130 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

barbarity have smote them with unsparing 
ferocity ; penal statutes, and deep prejudice 
have visited on them most unrighteous chas- 
tisement ; and notwithstanding all, they sur- 
vive ! Every means has been employed to 
exterminate them ; all nations have united in 
the design of destroying them. Their steps 
have been dogged by an ever-following curse ; 
go where they would they have been despised, 
reviled, and trodden under foot. No other peo- 
ple ever suffered the hundredth part of their 
calamities, and still they live ! " Like the bush 
on Mount Horeb, Israel has continued to burn 
without being consumed." For nearly eighteen 
hundred years have they been dispersed among 
the nations, and " left to the mercy of a world 
that everywhere hated and oppressed them— 
shattered in pieces like the wreck of a mighty 
vessel in a storm — scattered over the earth like 
fragments upon the waters." " They have had 
no temple, no sacrifice, no prince, no certain 
dwelling places. Forbidden to be governed 
by their own laws, to choose their own magis- 
trates, to maintain any common policy ; every 
ordinary bond of national union and preserva- 
tion has been wanting ; whatever influences 
of local attachment, or of language, or manners, 
or government, have been found necessary to 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 131 

the preservation of other nations, have been 
denied to them ; all the influences of internal 
depression and outward violence which have 
ever destroyed and blotted out the nations of 
the earth, have been at work with unprecedent- 
ed strength, for more than seventeen centuries, 
upon the national Israel, and still the Jews are 
a distinct and numerous people, unassimilated 
with any nation, though dispersed among all 
nations. Their peculiarities are undiminish- 
ed ; their national identity is unbroken."* How- 
ever remote from their native land, they are 
still Jews ; however distant from each other, 
they are still brethren. Indeed no people, not 
even the most settled nation of Europe, have 
preserved their race so pure and unmixed as 
have the scattered and wandering Jews. " In 
France, who can separate the race of the an- 
cient Gauls from the various other people who 
from time to time have settled there ? In Spain, 
who can distinguish exactly between the first 
possessors, the Spaniards, and the Goths and 
the Moors, who conquered and kept possession 
of the country for some ages ? In England, 
who can pretend to say with certainty which 
families are descended from the ancient Britons, 
and which from the Romans, or Saxons, or 
* M'llvaine's Lectures. 



132 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Danes, or Normans ? The most ancient and 
honourable pedigrees can only be traced up o 
a certain period, and beyond that there is no- 
thing but conjecture and uncertainty."* No 
such obscurity, however, rests on the descent 
of the Jews. They may not be able to distin- 
guish the particular tribe to which they belong, 
but they know certainly that they are the seed 
of Jacob, the children of Abraham.! 

Meanwhile, what has become of those migh- 
ty nations who were the rods of Jehovah's an- 
ger in chastising the Jews ? "Has not the 
Lord, according to his word, made a full end 
of them ? While Israel has stood unconsumed 
in the fiery furnace, where are the nations that 
kindled its flames ? Where are the x\ssyrians 
and the Chaldeans ? Their name is almost 
forgotten ; their existence is known only to his- 
tory. Where is the empire of the Egyptians 1 
The Macedonians destroyed it, and a descend- 
ant of its ancient race cannot be distinguished 
among the strangers who have ever since pos • 
sessed its territory. Where are they of Mace- 

* Bishop Newton. 

t The distinctive character and preservation of the Jew- 
ish nation were also foretold by Baalam when he prophe- 
sied that the people should dwell alone, and should not be 
reckoned [or mingled] among the nations. Num. xxiii, 9. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 133 

don ? The Roman sword subdued their king- 
dom, and their posterity are mingled insepa- 
rably among the confused population of Greece 
and Turkey. Where is the nation of ancient 
Rome, the last conquerors of the Jews, and the 
proud destroyers of Jerusalem 1 The Goths 
rolled their flood over its pride. Another na- 
tion inhabits the ancient city. Even the lan- 
guage of her former people is dead. The 
Goths ! — where are they ? The Jews ! where 
are they not? They witnessed the glory of 
Egypt, and of Babylon, and of Nineveh ; they 
were in mature age at the birth of Macedon, 
and of Rome ; mighty kingdoms have risen 
and perished since they began to be scattered 
and enslaved ; and now they traverse the ruins 
of all, the same people as when they left Ju- 
dea, preserving in themselves a monument of 
the days of Moses and the Pharaohs, as un- 
changed as the pyramids of Memphis, which 
they are reputed to have built." " You may 
call upon the ends of the earth, and will call 
in vain for one living representative of those 
powerful nations of antiquity, by whom the 
people of Israel were successively oppressed." 
They have passed away ; their shadows alone 
haunt the world and nicker upon its tablets. But 
the Jews walk in every street, dwell in every 



134 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

capital, traverse every exchange, and relieve 
the monotony of the nations of the earth. 

" Empires have sunk, and kingdoms passed away ; 
But still, apart, sublime in misery, stands 
The wreck of Israel ;" 

" and should the voice which is hereafter to 
gather that people out of all lands, be now 
heard from Mount Zion, calling for the children 
of Abraham, no less than four millions would 
instantly answer to the name, each bearing 
in himself unquestionable proofs of that noble 
lineage."* 

An exact estimate of the number of Jews 
now living in the world is of course unattain- 
able ; but it is generally believed to be nearly 
equal to what it was in the time of their great- 
est prosperity, under David and Solomon.f 
Their preservation in such numbers, for so 
many centuries, under circumstances of such 
singular disadvantage, and in defiance of such 
cruel measures as have been employed against 
them, can be deemed nothing less than an ex- 

* M'llvaine's Lectures. 

t There are supposed to be about two and a half mil- 
lions in Europe ; Asia probably contains one million ; Af- 
rica, about six hundred thousand, and America, twenty 
thousand. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 135 

isting, perpetual miracle. " It can be explained 
by no fortuitous circumstances ; it admits of 
no evasion ; it stands forth a palpable, bold, 
unequivocal proof of the superintendence of 
Providence, the truth of prophecy, and the di- 
vine authority of the Bible." 

He that " would see a sign," before he will 
believe the Scriptures, may in the Jews behold 
" a sign and a wonder," than which none can 
be greater. Their universal dispersion, their 
terrible calamities, and their wonderful preser- 
vation, are circumstances that find no parallel 
in the history of other nations : yet every fea- 
ture in their extraordinary history was distinct 
ly foretold more than three thousand years ago, 
and recorded in the oldest book of which the 
world has any knowledge. The man who after 
seriously reviewing the history of this " pecu- 
liar people," and comparing it with the predic- 
tions of Scripture, " will not believe Moses and 
the prophets, neither will he be persuaded 
though one arose from the dead." 

But will the Jews always continue an outcast 
wandering race, objects of the world's scorn 
shut up in darkness and unbelief? " Is there no 
balm in Gilead ?" And will " the health of the 
daughter of Israel" never be " recovered V 



136 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

" Hath God cast away his people ? God for- 
bid !" Rom. xi, 1. Their sorrows shall not last 
for ever. There are prophecies yet unfulfilled, 
which " speak better things" respecting them 
than those of whose truth they have been so 
long the living witnesses : — 

" Though dimm'd be Israel's glory now — 

Forlorn but not forsaken — 
Hope doth impart a fervent glow, 

The breath of prayer to waken, 
That still the bright and morning star 

May shed a healing ray ; 
The harbinger, to realms afar, 

Of Israel's happier day." — T. G. Nicholas. 

Yes ; the " God of Abraham" will yet be 
mindful of the " seed of Abraham." " They 
shall return, and seek the Lord their God, and 
David their king ; and shall fear the Lord and 
his goodness in the latter days," Hosea iii, 5. 
With " the fulness of the Gentiles," shall they 
also be brought in ; " and so all Israel shall be 
saved ; as it is written, ' There shall come out 
of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungod- 
liness from Jacob,' " Rom. xi, 26. " The Jews, 
now buried in the grave of tradition, and super- 
stition, and mammon, shall hear the voice of 
the Son of God, and live." Their spiritual 
blindness shall be dispelled by the light of the 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 137 

gospel ; and they shall become true worship- 
pers of the God of their fathers, and of " Jesus 
Christ whom he has sent." " The cross shall 
then be raised in glory, amid the hosannahs of 
the people who once raised it in shame and 
sorrow, amid execrations ; and they who re- 
jected Him who was ordained a ' light to lighten 
the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Is- 
rael,' ' shall look on Him whom they have 
pierced, and mourn' at the deeds of their fa 
thers, while they rejoice at the grace so unde- 
servedly manifested to themselves."* 

It is perhaps scarcely to be wondered at, 
that so few Jews have hitherto been led to em- 
brace Christianity. The treatment which for 
centuries they endured, in countries called 
Christian, was not such as was likely to win 
them over to the faith of the gospel. Although 
during this period there were not wanting those 
who laboured to effect their conversion, yet the 
influence of their preaching was counteracted 
by the bitter and persecuting spirit with which 
t was enforced. In modern times, the Pro- 
testant churches which have so nobly exerted 
themselves to send the glad tidings of salva- 
tion to all nations, have strangely neglected 
the Jews. Indeed, they would seem almost to 
* Fraser's Magazine, Sept., 1840. 



138 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

have considered them as a people " given over 
to a reprobate mind," whose conversion it was 
hopeless to attempt or desire. While " sea 
and land" have been " compassed to make pro- 
selytes," and the heralds of the cross have 
been despatched to China and Greenland, to 
India and Greece, to the far off isles of the sea, 
and to lands 

"But little noticed, and of little note," 
comparatively few have been found to care for 
the souls of that people to whom were first 
" committed the oracles of God," and " of 
whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came." 
But we trust that " another spirit" is about to 
animate the churches. The case of the Jews 
is awakening an interest which it never before 
excited ; and many a pious heart is beating in 
unison with that of the apostle when he ex- 
claimed, " My heart's desire and prayer to 
God for Israel is, that they might be saved," 
Romans x, 1. 

During the past year a deputation from the 
Church of Scotland visited the principal settle- 
ments of the Jews in Europe and Western 
Asia, and the facts collected by them, the re- 
sults of patient personal investigation, are of 
the most interesting and encouraging charac- 
ter. Although this chapter has already been 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 139 

extended beyond the original design of the 
writer, yet he cannot refrain from making a 
few extracts from the report which the deputa- 
tion, on their return, presented to the general 
assembly of the Scottish Church. 

At Smyrna, which contains several thou- 
sand Jews, one of the deputation unexpectedly 
entering the house of a respectable Jewish 
family, surprised a young man in the act of 
reading the New Testament. The gentleman 
expressing his delight at finding him thus en- 
gaged, inquired his opinion of the book he had 
been reading. He replied, " It is the best book 
in the world, and the Old Testament is the next 
best." When asked why he did not openly 
avow himself a Christian, he replied, that im- 
prisonment and banishment would be the imme- 
diate consequence of his doing so ; but if these 
restraints were removed, he and several other 
young men in Smyrna would publicly embrace 
Christianity. 

At Pest, the capital of Hungary, Dr. Keith, 
one of the deputation, was detained by ill 
health longer than he intended. This city 
contains upward of eleven thousand Jews, and 
the doctor says, — " There are at least three 
thousand who wholly disregard the Talmud, 
and renounce the superstition and mummery 



140 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

of the synagogue.* They have a simple form 
of worship ; the master preaches to the congre- 
gation, which consists of from fifteen hundred 
to two thousand, on their own sabbath, from the 
texts of the Old Testament. It is the easiest 
thing to discuss with them the Messiahship of 
Jesus. There are inquirers from time to time. 
One aged Jew said, ' O, it is a hard thing to re- 
nounce opinions which have been believed from 
youth as undoubted.' If I had remained a few 
weeks longer at Pest, every hour of the day 
some inquiring Jew would have come to ask 
respecting Christ. — The number of Jews in 
Hungary is two hundred and fifty thousand, at 
the lowest estimate, and some rate them at 
double that number. This is a place in which, 

* The Jewish rabbins pretend that besides the written 
law, God communicated to Moses many other laws and 
regulations which were not committed to writing, but 
transmitted orally from one generation to another, and 
hence called " the tradition of the elders." The Talmud 
is a collection of these traditions, with a commentary upon 
them, and is an immense work, comprising several folio 
volumes. Many of its requisitions are frivolous and ab- 
surd, and others profane and unscriptural, yet the rabbins 
teach, and most of the Jews believe, that it is of equal, if 
not superior authority to the Bible. For a further ac- 
count of it, see Prideaux's Connections, Clarke's Com- 
mentary on Matthew xv, 2, and Watson's Dictionary, 
page 531. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 141 

according to inquiry, there are promising open- 
ings for a mission to the Jewish nation ; to them 
the simplicity of the gospel is altogether un- 
known ; as yet they know nothing of the gospel 
but from the corruptions of the Greek and Ro- 
man Churches ; and yet conversions are made 
from year to year. If the Jew can be convert- 
ed to such a faith, O, may he not be led rather 
to Jesus Christ, without shocking his natural 
feelings at the idolatry of the Gentiles ? Shall 
the call be in vain 1 It is for the general assem- 
bly — it is for the church of Christ to answer." 
Another of the deputation reports, that " the 
London Society for the Conversion of the Jews 
have an interesting and effective mission in 
the south of Palestine, its head quarters being 
Jerusalem." He further states that " it is the 
testimony of Professor Tholuck [of Germany] 
that since the beginning of the present century 
more Jews had been brought to the knowledge 
of the Christian faith than during all the centu- 
ries preceding from the death of Christ. One 
of the ministers of Berlin said he had baptized 
with his own hand, of late years, one hundred 
and twelve Jews." 

To the present improved condition of the 
Jews in a temporal view, we have already 



142 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

adverted, [page 128.] In most countries ol 
Europe they are not only free from persecu- 
tion, but receive the same protection from the 
laws, and enjoy nearly the same privileges as 
other citizens. Every succeeding year seems 
to bring with it some additional proof of their 
altered circumstances, and of the diminution of 
Gentile prejudices. Increase of kindly feeling 
on the part of Christians toward the Jews will 
naturally produce some degree of reciprocal 
feeling on their part, and dispose them to a 
more favourable investigation of the claims of 
Christianity. From various accounts it ap- 
pears that in several places a spirit of religious 
inquiry is already awakened among them ; that 
the Talmud, which has hitherto been the great- 
est obstacle to their conversion, is fast falling 
into disrepute ; and that, weary of waiting for a 
Messiah who has so long disappointed their 
expectations, many are beginning to ask among 
themselves whether "he that should come," has 
not already appeared. Under these circum- 
stances may we not hope, that even now the 
day of their " redemption draweth nigh," and 
that " the veil" which " is upon their heart" is 
about to be "taken away?" 2 Cor. iii, 15, 16. 
Surely, if missionaries possessing the requisite 
qualifications were to go among them, like the 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 143 

apostles of old, " visiting from house to house," 
and " preaching in the synagogues," showing 
to them from their own " Scriptures that Jesus 
is Christ," the unbelief which has hitherto been 
proof against both the force of argument and the 
argument of force, would yield to the influence 
of truth spoken in love. As Christians, we owe 
the Jews a debt of gratitude which can never 
be fully repaid. To them, instrumentally, we 
are indebted for the Scriptures, not only of the 
Old, but also of the New Testament ; for " the 
glorious company of the apostles," as well as 
" the goodly fellowship of the prophets" were 
Jews. We ought, then, to do at least as much 
for them as we do for those nations who have 
no special claims upon us. " Pray for the peace 
of Jerusalem." 

" Have they stumbled that they should fall ? 
God forbid : but through their fall salvation is 
come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to 
jealousy. — For as ye [Gentiles] in times past 
have not believed God, yet have now obtained 
mercy through their unbelief: even so have 
these also now not believed God, that through 
your mercy they also may obtain mercy. Now, if 
the fall of them be the riches of the world, and 
the diminishing of them be the riches of the 



144 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Gentiles ; how much more their fulness ? — If 
the casting away of them be the reconciling of 
the world, what shall the receiving of them be 
but life from the dead ?" Rom. xi, 11, &c. 

" Father of faithful Abraham, hear 

Our earnest suit for Abraham's seed ; 

Justly they claim the softest prayer 
From us, adopted in their stead, 

Who mercy through their fall obtain, 

And Christ by their rejection gain. 

Outcasts from thee, and scatter'd wide, 
Through every nation under heaven, 

Blaspheming whom they crucified, 
Unsaved, unpitied, unforgiven ; 

Branded like Cain, they bear their load, 

Abhorr'd of man, and cursed of God. 

But hast thou finally forsook, 

For ever cast thy own away T 
Wilt thou not bid the murderers look 

On Him they pierced, and weep, and pray 1 
Yes, gracious Lord, thy word is past ; 
All Israel shall be saved at last. 

Come then, thou great Deliverer, come. 
The veil from Jacob's heart remove : 

Receive thy ancient people home ! 
That, quicken'd by thy dying love, 

The world may their reception find, 

Life from the dead for all mankind." 

Charles Wesley. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 145 

CHAPTER V. 

PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE HOLY LAND. 

Interesting associations of this land — Its situation, extent, and 
character — Prophecies respecting- it — Were partially fulfilled du- 
ring the Babylonish captivity — More fully accomplished after its 
subjection by the Romans— Present state of the country agrees 
with the prophecies — The land is desolate— Testmony of Sandys, 
Volney, Maundrell, Addison, Hardy, Jowett, Burckhardt, and 
Joliffe — The highways are desolate — Extracts from Hardy, Vol- 
ney, Richardson, Jowett, and Addison — The cities are waste — 
Ruinous state of the ancient cities and towns as described by 
modern travellers— ^Flourishing condition of Galilee in the time 
of Josephus — Contrast exhibited in its present state — Scripture 
accounts of the former populousness and abundance of the Holy 
Land, doubted by some writers — Confirmed by the positive testi- 
mony of history, and by the present indications of the country — 
Testimony of Gibbon and Volney to these facts — Remarkable ve- 
rification of Scripture prophecy, from Volney's Ruins — Unfulfilled 
prophecies of the restoration of the Jews, and the future pros- 
perity of the Holy Land — Poem. 

We have shown in the two preceding chap- 
ters how literally and fearfully have been ac- 
complished the threatenings of Jehovah against 
the disobedient Jews. We will now proceed 
to exhibit the fulfilment of those prophecies 
which refer to their ancient country : for the 
judgments of the Lord were not pronounced 
against the people only : God " cursed the 
ground" also, for their sakes ; and the land in 
which they dwelt was, equally with themselves, 
the object of prophetic denunciation. 
10 



146 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

There is no other spot on the face of the 
earth that is regarded by the Christian with 
feelings of such intense interest and curiosity 
as the Holy Land. Every portion of its varied 
territory, its mountains, its valleys, its lakes, its 
rivers, and even its deserts, are rendered sacred 
in his eyes, by some deeply interesting asso- 
ciation. There it was that Jehovah establish- 
ed the commonwealth of Israel, inspired his 
prophets, sent angels to converse with men, 
and manifested his powder and his presence in 
a peculiar manner. There the worship of the 
one true God was preserved and perpetuated for 
more than fifteen centuries ; for " in Judah was 
God known, and his name was great in Israel," 
while all the rest of the world was sunk in the 
grossest superstition and idolatry. 

" Blest land of Judea ! thrice hallow'd of song, 
Where the holiest of memories pilgrim-like throng, 
In the shade of thy palms, by the shores of thy sea, 
On the hills of thy beauty, my heart is with thee. 

With the eye of a spirit I look on that shore 
Where pilgrim and prophet have linger'd before ; 
With the glide of a spirit I traverse the sod 
Made bright by the steps of the angels of God." 

Whittier. 

But, above all, this land is hallowed as be- 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 147 

ing the place which was honoured by the per 
sonal ministry of the Messiah — the Son of God. 

" Here his blessing was heard, and his lessons were taught, 
Here the blind was restored, and the healing was wrought,'' 

and here he accomplished the mystery of man's 
redemption by the offering of himself as an 
atonement for the sins of the world. 

This interesting country — the scene of Scrip- 
ture history, the theatre of miracle and of pro- 
phecy — lies on the eastern shore of the Medi- 
terranean Sea, which forms its western bound- 
ary, between the thirty-first and thirty-fourth 
degrees of north latitude. It is bounded on the 
north by the mountains of Lebanon ; on the 
south by the deserts of Arabia ; and on the east 
by the desert of Syria and the Dead Sea. 

As early as the time of Abraham, this favour- 
ed spot was designated by God as the chosen 
residence of his " peculiar people." " To thee 
will I give it, and to thy seed for ever," was 
the promise of Jehovah respecting it, to that 
patriarch. Nor was it unworthy of the distinc- 
tion thus conferred upon it ; for although incon- 
siderable in point of extent, being only about one 
hundred and eighty miles long, with an average 
breadth of not more than seventy, yet such 
was the salubrity of its climate and the fertility 



148 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

of its soil, that it was not only abundantly ca- 
pable of supplying the wants of its inhabitants, 
even when most densely peopled, but also fur- 
nished a large surplus of corn which they dis- 
posed of to the Phenicians of Tyre and Sidon. 

I Kings v, 11; Ezek. xxvii, 7; Acts xii, 20. 

II It had enough of mountain, and stream, and 
lake, and sea, to render it complete in its own 
resources ;" while the natural barriers, with 
which it was surrounded on all sides, rendered 
it easy of defence against foreign invasion. 
" Nor must it be forgotten, that its position, al- 
most in the centre of the three great continents 
of Europe, Asia, and Africa, was the most de- 
sirable that could have been chosen ; when the 
fulness of time was come,' and the blessings 
of revelation and redemption were to be scat- 
tered among the dwellers upon earth."* 

The general appearance and character of the 
country were thus accurately described by Mo- 
ses to the children of Israel while on their way 
thither : — " The land whither thou goest in to 
possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from 
whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy 
seed and wateredst it with thy foot, as a gar- 
den of herbs : but the land whither ye go to 
possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and 
*Hardv. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 149 

drinketh water of the rain of heaven. — For the 
Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, 
a land of brooks of water, of fountains, and 
depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; a 
land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig- 
trees, and pomegranates ; a land of oil-olive, 
and honey ; a land wherein thou shalt eat 
bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack 
any thing in it," Deut. viii, 7-9; xi, 10, 11. 

The abundant supply of water is thus promi- 
nently mentioned, " as being the most import- 
ant circumstance in an oriental country, where 
its value is incalculable. Only one who has 
travelled in the East, and knows practically 
the astonishing difference between a watered 
and unwatered country, can enter into the full 
force of this foremost characteristic of the Pro- 
mised land. The reader who looks on a general 
map will see at a glance that there is no coun- 
try in Western Asia more liberally supplied 
with streams of water. The benefit of these 
streams is incalculable, although, as is the case 
in those regions with all streams of no consider- 
able magnitude, they are [except the Jordan] 
rather winter torrents than rivers."* 

Unlike Egypt, which is exceedingly plain 
and level, Canaan was diversified with hills 
* Pictorial Bible 



150 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

arid valleys, which not only added to the beauty 
of the scenery, but also, by varying the tempe- 
rature of the country, rendered it capable of 
producing the fruits of the most distant cli- 
mates. Under the sway of the Canaanites it 
brought forth in such abundance, that even the 
spies sent by Moses, while they endeavoured 
to dissuade the Israelites from attempting to 
possess it, were constrained to say concerning 
it, " It is a good land which the Lord our God 
doth give us," Num. xiii, 27 ; Deut. i, 25. In 
other parts of Scripture it is called " the plea- 
sant land," Psa. cvi, 24 ; Zech. vii, 14 ; " the 
glory of all lands," Ezek. xx, 6 ; and in many 
places it is termed " a land flowing with milk 
and honey." 

Such then was the country which God gave 
to Israel for a possession : — 

" A land of corn, and wine, and oil, 
Favour'd with God's peculiar smile, 
With every blessing blest." 

But its glory and abundance were to continue 
only so long as the Israelites remained faith- 
ful to their covenant with God. Before they 
set foot on their promised inheritance, Jeho- 
vah, by the mouth of his servant Moses, thus 
solemnly warned them of the consequences of 
violating his commands : — 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 151 

" If ye walk contrary unto me, and will not 
hearken unto me, I will bring seven times 
more plagues upon you according to your sins. 
— And your highways shall be desolate ; and I 
will make your cities waste, and bring your 
sanctuaries into desolation. — And I will brrrg 
the land into desolation : and your enemies 
which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 
And I will scatter you among the heathen, and 
I will draw out a sword after you, and your 
land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 
Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths,* as 
long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your 
enemies' land ; even then shall the land rest, 
and enjoy her sabbaths," Levit. xxvi, 21, 22, 
31-34. " The generation to come of your chil- 
dren that shall rise up after you, and the stran- 
ger that shall come from a far land, shall say, 
when they see the plagues of that land, and the 
sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it ; and 

* The land shall enjoy her sabbaths — that is, it shall lie 
waste and uncultivated. The expression has reference to 
that injunction of the Mosaic law by which the Jews were 
forbidden to cultivate the ground every seventh year ; this 
year was called " the sabbath of the land," because in it 
the land had rest. During this sabbatical year the people 
were to subsist on the superabundance of the preceding 
year, in which the ground produced a treble crop. Leviti- 
cus xxv, 2-7, 21, 22. 



152 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, 
and burning,* that it is not sown, nor beareth,nor 
any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow 
of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, 
which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in 
his wrath : even all nations shall say, * Where- 
fore hath the Lord done this unto this land 1 
What meaneth the heat of this great anger V 
Then men shall say, ' Because they have for- 
saken the covenant of the Lord God of their 
fathers, which he made with them when he 
brought them out of the land of Egypt,' " Deu- 
teronomy xxix, 22-25. 

The faithful warnings of Moses being disre- 
garded by the Jews, Jehovah, in after times, 
sent other prophets unto them, " rising up early 
and sending them, and saying, ' Turn ye from 
the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land 
that the Lord hath given to you and to your 

* These expressions are not to be understood literally, 
being only strong figures of speech to denote extreme de- 
solation and barrenness ; and in this way they are still 
used in the East. Mr. Roberts, in his Oriental Illustra- 
tions, says, " When a place is noted for being unhealthy, 
or the land very unfruitful, it is called kenthago poomy, a 
place or country of brimstone. Trincomalee, and some 
other places, have gained this appellation on account of 
the heat and sterility of their soils." 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 153 

fathers for ever : and go not after other gods to 
serve them, and provoke me not to anger with 
the work of your hands ; and I will do you no 
hurt.' — Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their 
ear, but walked every one in the imagination 
of their evil heart ;" and in consequence there- 
of, the Lord has brought upon their country 
" all the curses which were written" in his 
book " concerning" it. 

This was accomplished, first, when Judah 
was carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar, 
at which time the land lay desolate seventy 
years. Jeremiah, the " weeping prophet," thus 
mournfully describes the affliction of the land 
at this period : — 

" How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with 

a cloud in his anger, 
And cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty 

of Israel, 
And remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger ! 
The Lord was an enemy : he hath swallowed up Israel, 
He hath swallowed up all her palaces ; 
He hath destroyed her strong holds, 
And hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning 

and lamentation. 
The Lord hath cast off his altar, 
He hath abhorred his sanctuary, 
He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls 

of her palaces. 
He hath destroyed and broken her bars ; 



154 SCRIPTURE PR0PHEC1. 

Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles. 

All that pass by her clap their hands, 

They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jeru- 
salem, 

Saying, ' Is this the city that men call the perfection of 
beauty, the joy of the whole earth !' 

Our inheritance is turned to strangers, 

Our houses to aliens. 

For this our heart is faint ; 

For these things our eyes are dim ; 

Because of the mountain of Zion which is desolate, 

The foxes walk upon it. 

The crown is fallen from our head ; 

Wo unto us, that we have sinned !" 

Lam. ii, 1, 5, 7, 9, 15 ; v, 2, 17, 18, 16. 

But the predictions of Moses were more espe- 
cially fulfilled in the judgments visited upon 
Judea and its inhabitants by the Romans, and 
the almost perpetual desolation of the country 
since that period. While the Jews are now in 
their " enemies' land," suffering the punishment 
of their sins, the actual state of their own land, 
as it now is, and for many centuries has been, 
exactly corresponds with the prophecies de- 
livered by their leader and lawgiver, upward 
of three thousand years ago. 

u / will bring your land into desolation — your 
land shall be desolate. — The accomplishment of 
this prediction is confirmed by the testimony 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 155 

of history, and of every traveller who has visit- 
ed the country. In the first and second centu- 
ries, Palestine was devastated by the wars with 
the Romans, until the country was literally 
converted into a desert. It continued subject 
to the power of Rome until it was seized upon 
and laid waste by the Arabian tribes collected 
under the banner of Mohammed. It was after 
this torn in pieces by the civil wars between 
the two rival sects of Mohammedans, wrested 
from the caliphs by their rebellious governors, 
taken from them by the Turcoman soldiers, 
several times invaded by the European crusa- 
ders, retaken by the mamalukes of Egypt, ra- 
vaged by Tamerlane and his Tartars, and at 
last reduced to subjection by the Turks. 

It is easy to conceive the lamentable condi- 
tion of a country almost depopulated by a series 
of desolating wars, frequently changing mas- 
ters, and at length falling under the dominion 
of a wretched and tyrannical government like 
that of Turkey, which, while it has strength 
sufficient to oppress the miserable inhabitants, 
and deprive them of the fruits of their industry, 
is yet unable to protect them from the hordes 
of wandering Arabs who people the surround- 
ing deserts, and to whose predatory incursions 
they are continually exposed. 



156 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

" Thus mourn, beneath the oppressor's rod, 
The fields where faithful Abraham trod, 
Where Isaac walk'd by twilight gleam, 
And heaven came down on Jacob's dream." 

J. Montgomery. 

To the desolate condition of the land all tra- 
vellers bear witness. Sandys, in 1610, speak- 
ing of Palestine and the adjacent lands, says, — 
" These countries, once so glorious and famous 
for their happy estate, are now, through vice 
and ingratitude, become the most deplored spec- 
tacles of extreme miserie. Those rich lands 
at this present remaine waste and overgrowne 
with bushes, receptacles of wild beasts, of 
theeues and murderers ; large territories dis- 
peopled or thinly inhabited ; goodly cities made 
desolate ; sumptuous buildings become mines ; 
glorious temples either subverted or prostituted 
to impiety ; true religion discountenanced and 
oppressed ; all nobility extinguished; no light 
of learning permitted, nor vertue cherished : 
violence and rapine insulting ouer all, and 
leauing no security save to an abject mind, and 
vnlookt on pouerty." 

Speaking of Syria in general, of which coun- 
try Palestine now forms a part, Volney re- 
marks, — " The people, denied the enjoyment of 
the fruit of their labours, restrain their industry 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 157 

to the supply of their necessary wants. The 
husbandman only sows to keep himself from 
starving. The condition of the peasants is 
miserable. The art of cultivation is in the 
most deplorable state ; the husbandman is des- 
titute of instruments, or has very bad ones ; his 
plough is frequently no more than the branch 
of a tree, cut below a bifurcation, and used 
without wheels. — In the mountains they do not 
prune their vines, and they nowhere ingraft 
trees. — In the districts exposed to the Arabs, 
as in Palestine, the countryman must sow with 
his musket in his hand. Scarcely does the 
corn turn yellow, before it is reaped, and con- 
cealed in matmoures, or subterranean caverns. 
As little as possible is saved for seed corn, be- 
cause they sow no more than is barely neces- 
sary for subsistence ; in a word, their whole in- 
dustry is limited to a supply of their immediate 
wants ; and to procure a little bread, a few 
onions, a wretched blue shirt, and a bit of wool- 
len, much labour is not necessary." At the 
conclusion of his work, he says, that after hav- 
ing lived for some time in these " once flour- 
ishing and populous, but now desolate and bar- 
barous countries," he could not, on his return 
to France, avoid feeling a kind of surprise, 
when, " instead of those ruined countries and 



158 SCRIPTURE PROPHECV. 

vast deserts/' to which he had been accustom- 
ed, he found himself in a well-cultivated and 
populous territory. 

Maundrell, when journeying southward from 
Nablous,the ancient Shechem, observes, — "All 
along this day's travel from Kane Leban to 
Beer, [which lies about ten miles north of Je- 
rusalem,] and also, as far as we could see 
around, the country presents nothing to the 
view in most places but naked rocks, mount- 
ains, and precipices, at sight of which pilgrims 
are apt to be much astonished and balked in 
their expectations ; finding that country in such 
an inhospitable condition, concerning whose 
pleasantness and plenty they had before formed 
in their minds such high ideas, from the de- 
scription given of it in the word of God." Of 
the once fertile plain of Jericho he says, it is 
now " extremely barren, producing nothing but 
a kind of samphire and other marine plants ; 
and in many places where puddles of water had 
stood in the road, we observed a whiteness on 
the ground, which we found to be a crust of 
salt, raised by the water out of the earth." Of 
the plain of Acre (the ancient Ptolemais) he 
tells us : — " It was once a delicious plain ; but it 
is now, for want of culture, overrun with rank 






SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 159 

weeds, which at the time when we passed it 
were as high as the horses' backs." 

Burckhardt states, that " the greater part of 
the valley of the Jordan is a parched desert, of 
which a few spots only are cultivated by the 
Bedouins. 

Of the celebrated plain of Esdraelon, where 
the tribe of Issachar " rejoiced in their tents," 
and whose soil is the richest of any in Pales- 
tine, Mr. Addison says, — " After riding among 
undulating hills for about an hour, we entered 
the broad flat plain of Esdraelon. It is silent 
and solitary over its wide extent, presenting an 
appearance very similar to the desert plains 
leading to Palmyra. It possesses a most fer- 
tile soil ; and the rich black mould, parched 
and dusty, was covered with a dense and luxu- 
riant crop of thistles and weeds. In no part 
of the wide surface of this lifeless plain could 
a tree be seen, a single village, a single town, 
a single cultivated enclosed field, or a solitary 
human habitation." Mr. Hardy remarks, that 
" the soil is in some places more than six feet 
thick, and exceedingly rich, and were the plain 
well cultivated, it would be one of the most 
productive in the world. It is about fifty miles 
long, and twenty broad." He observed " a 



160 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

few small villages scattered over its surface 
but not perhaps a hundredth part of the num- 
ber it is well able to sustain." Dr. Clarke 
terms it " a solitude," and compares it to " a 
vast meadow covered with the richest pasture. '' 
Mr. Jowett says, — " We counted, in our road 
across the plain, only five very small villages, 
consisting of wretched mud hovels, chiefly in 
ruins. On this noble plain, if there were perfect 
security from the government, — a thing now 
unknown for centuries, — where we saw but five 
small villages, twenty-five good towns, each 
with a population of one thousand souls, might 
stand at a distance of three miles from each 
other." 

Mr. JolifFe, writing from Jerusalem, says, — 
11 From the centre of the neighbouring eleva- 
tions is seen a wild, rugged, and mountainous 
desert ; no herds depasturing on the summits, 
no forests clothing the acclivities, no waters 
flowing through the valleys ; but one rude scene 
of melancholy waste, in the midst of which the 
ancient glory of Judea bows her head in widow- 
ed desolation." " All around Jerusalem," says 
Dr. Richardson, " the general aspect is blight- 
ed and barren ; the grass is withered ; the bare 
rocks look through the scanty sward ; the grain 
itself, like the starving progeny of famine, 






SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 161 

seems in doubt whether to come to maturity or 
die in the ear." 

Mr. Hardy says, — " In looking at some of 
the barren hills of Judea, where the beast wan- 
ders not, the bird flies not, and the grass grows 
not, I have seen the impress of the curse of 
God, in more dreadful characters than are to 
be seen elsewhere on this side the grave ; a 
sight rendered still more striking by the beau- 
tiful flowers, and the patches of flourishing 
grain, that here and there present themselves, 
as if to show what the land was once, and what 
it again may be, when the blessing of the Lord 
shall rest upon the city and upon the field, and 
the labour of man's hand be refreshed by the 
former and latter rain." 

The highways shall he desolate. — There have 
probably been few countries between the va- 
rious parts of which there was so frequent 
and regular an intercourse as in Pales- 
tine, while inhabited by the children of Israel. 
Three times every year were all the males, 
from every part of the country, required, by the 
precepts of their law, to present themselves 
before the Lord in Jerusalem, on which occa- 
sions they were not unfrequently accompanied 
by their wives and families. Deut. xvi, 16; 
11 



162 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Luke ii, 41-44. On the recurrence of these pe- 
riodical pilgrimages, the " highways," — throng- 
ed with persons of all ages and of both sexes 
— old men and venerable matrons, the time of 
whose departure was at hand, young men re- 
joicing in their strength, and the daughters of 
Israel blooming in youth and beauty — some 
journeying on foot, others travelling by the va- 
rious modes of conveyance used in those days 
— must have presented a spectacle of the most 
picturesque and animated character. But now, 
how changed the scene ! " The paths are de- 
serted where the tribes once approached from 
the most distant parts to the festivals of the 
temple."* " The ways of Zion do mourn be- 
cause none come to her solemn feasts. — The 
highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceas- 
eth." " In the interior parts of Syria there 
are neither great roads, nor canals, nor even 
bridges over the greatest parts of the rivers 
and torrents, however necessary they may be 
in winter. Between town and town there are 
neither posts nor public conveyances. — No- 
body travels alone, from the insecurity of the 
roads. One must wait for several travellers 
who are going to the same place, or take ad- 
vantage of the passage of some great man, who 
* Hardy. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 163 

assumes the office of protector, but is more fre- 
quently the oppressor of the caravan. These pre- 
cautions are, above all, necessary in the countries 
exposed to the Arabs, such as Palestine. — It is 
remarkable, that we never see either a wagon, 
or a cart, in all Syria."* " Among the hills of 
Palestine, the road is impassable, and the tra- 
veller finds himself among a set of infamous 
and ignorant thieves, who would cut his throat 
for a farthing, and rob him of his money for 
the mere pleasure of doing it."f 

Mr. Jowett, speaking of his journey across 
the great plain of Esdraelon, says, — " We saw 
very few persons on the road ; we might truly 
apply to this scene the words of Deborah, — 
The highways were unoccupied" Judges v, 6, 7. 
In another place he remarks, — " From the win- 
dow of the khan where we are lodging, we 
have a clear view of the tract over which Eli- 
jah must have passed, when he girded up his 
loins, and ran before the chariot of Ahab to the 
entrance of Jezreel. 1 Kings xviii, 44-46. But 
in the present day, no chariots are to be seen — 
not even a single wheel carriage of any descrip- 
tion whatever. — The roads among the mountains 
are so neglected — such mere single foot paths 
— that it is difficult to imagine in what way cha- 
* Volney. f Dr. Richardson, 



164 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

riots could now convey the traveller to Jerusa- 
lem, or over the chief part of the Holy Land." 
" What a contrast," observes Mr. Addison, 
" does the present aspect of the land bear to 
its past state ! Where are now the towns and 
villages mentioned in the Roman itineraries, 
the numerous ' via publica? or public highways 
therein enumerated, and the population and 
productions of time past, when ' the land was 
full of horses, neither was there any end of 
chariots,' Isa. ii, 7. — There is now no such 
thing as a carriage or chariot in the whole 
country, nor a single carriage road." 

Your land shall be desolate, and your cities 
waste. — The one was the necessary result of 
the other. The country being desolate and un- 
cultivated, its ancient cities, once so numerous, 
powerful, and populous, as a natural and an 
inevitable consequence, have fallen to decay. 

Jerusalem, once " beautiful for situation, the 
joy of the whole earth," is now nothing more 
than an ordinary Syrian town of the third or 
fourth class, with a population of not more 
than from twelve to fifteen thousand. " This 
town," remarks Volney, " presents a striking 
example of the vicissitudes of human affairs : 
when we behold its walls levelled, its ditches 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 165 

filled up, and all its buildings embarrassed with 
ruins, we can scarcely believe we view that 
celebrated metropolis which formerly withstood 
the efforts of the most powerful empires, and, 
for a time, resisted the arms of Rome herself ; 
— in a word, we with difficulty recognise Jeru- 
salem." "Jerusalem," says Mr. Hardy, "is 
one of the dullest places I ever entered ; — it 
has lost its rank in political importance — there 
is now no higher power than a delegated go- 
vernor, who is a person of comparatively low 
rank." Dr. Olin tells us that a large number 
of the houses are in a dilapidated and ruinous 
condition ; and that nearly the whole popula- 
tion are in a state of the most abject poverty 
and wretchedness, the result of oppression, the 
absence of trade, and the utter stagnation of all 
branches of industry. 

" How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people ! 
How is she become as a widow ! 
She that was great among the nations, 
And princess among the provinces, 
How is she become tributary ! 

From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed ; • 

Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy ; — 

For the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her 

transgressions." Lam. i, 1, 5, 6. 

Samaria, the capital of the short-lived and 
wicked kingdom of Israel, is reduced to almost 



166 SCRIPTURE PROPHECV. 

complete desolation. This city was beautifully 
situated. It occupied the summit of a large, well- 
shaped, oval hill, surrounded by a fruitful valley, 
and enclosed on all sides by hills equally beau- 
tiful. " It would be difficult," says Dr. Robinson, 
" to find in all Palestine a situation of equal 
strength, fertility, and beauty combined. In all 
these particulars it has very greatly the advan- 
tage over Jerusalem." Concerning this place 
the following prophecies were delivered : — 

"Samaria shall become desolate; 

For she hath rebelled against her God." — Hos. xiii 16. 
" I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, 

And as plantings of a vineyard : 

And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, 

And I will discover the foundations thereof. — Mic.i,6. 

Samaria was taken, after a seige of three years, 
by the king of Assyria. 2 Kings xvii, 5, 6. Jose- 
phus ( Ant. b. xiii, c. 10) tells us that it was again 
taken, after a seige of one year, by John Hyr- 
canus, who razed it to the ground. It was re- 
built, and strongly fortified, by Herod, who gave 
it the name of Sebaste. The present appear- 
ance of the place shows the literal fulfilment of 
Micah's prediction. Nothing but a few ruins now 
remain to testify its former greatness : the stones 
are "poured down into the valley;" and the 
plough claims undisputed dominion over the en- 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 167 

tire site, except the small spot on the eastern 
slope occupied by the miserable village which still 
retains the name of Sebaste. — Olin — Maundrell. 
Jericho, which in the time of Christ was se- 
cond only to Jerusalem, is so utterly destroyed 
that the precise spot where it stood is now mat- 
ter of speculation. The village of Rihah, long 
but erroneously supposed to occupy its site, is 
spoken of by Dr. Olin and others as one of 
the meanest in Palestine. Bethel, now called 
Beitin has been deserted for ages. " Its ruins," 
says Dr. Robinson" cover a space of three or four 
acres. They consist of very many foundations 
and half-standing walls of houses and other build- 
ings. A few Arabs had pitched their tents here 
for the summer, to watch their flocks and fields 
of grain; and they were the only inhabitants." 
From the same authority we learn that Seilun, the 
ancient Shiloh, is a desolation covered with ru- 
ins of comparatively modern date, among which 
are many large stones and fragments of columns, 
shewing it to have been an ancient site. Of 
Bethshan " the only remains are large heaps of 
black hewn stones, many foundations of houses, 
and the fragments of a few columns ; the present 
village, called Bysan, contains about seventy 
or eighty houses, and the inhabitants are in a 
miserable condition from being exposed to the 



168 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

depredations of the Bedouins." — Burckhardt. 
Lydda, now called Ludd, described by Jose- 
phus as being not inferior in size to a city, has, 
gays Volney, " the appearance of a place lately 
ravaged by fire and sword. From the huts of the 
inhabitants to the palace of the Aga is one vast 
heap of rubbish and ruins." Arimathea has so 
utterly passed away that its site is now unknown ; 
and so also of many other once flourishing cities. 

Ceserea, the once splendid city of Herod, 
exhibits an awful contrast to its former magni- 
ficence, by the present desolate appearance 
of its ruins. Not a single inhabitant remains ; 
jackals and beasts of prey, with a few birds and 
lizards, are the only living possessors of this 
once crowded city. — Clarke — Hardy. 

Dr. Robinson, travelling in the " hill-country" 
of Judea, says, " Many of the hills were marked 
with ruins, showing that this tract of country 
was once thickly inhabited : " and again, " The 
country is full of sites of ruins," &c. 

Josephus says of Galilee, — "The country is 
rich and fruitful, and is all cultivated. Moreover 
the cities lie here very thick ; and the very many 
villages that are here, are everywhere so full of 
people, by the richness of the soil, that the very 
least of them contains above fifteen thousand in- 
habitants." What a contrast does this descrip- 






SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 169 

tion present to the present condition of this ter- 
ritory. There is not now in all Galilee a single 
city containing more than six thousand inha- 
bitants ; and the numerous cities which then 
studded the shores of its beautiful lake, have, 
with the single exception of Tiberias, long 
been abandoned to utter desolation. " When," 
observes Mr. Addison," we survey the silence 
and solitude of these shores, and cast our eyes 
over the expanse of water, whose blue surface 
is checkered by no boat or sail, we are led to 
draw a vivid and melancholy comparison be- 
tween the past and present state of this now 
solitary region. Along this wide-extended line 
of coast, now so silent and deserted, once stood 
the flourishing and populous cities of Mag- 
dala, Bethsaida, Chorazin, Capernaum, &c. 
In the ruined harbours, and in the lone and 
solitary bays which extend around the deserted 
sites of these once flourishing cities, bustling 
fleets of boats and vessels, whether for peace 
or war, were fitted out. Now no boat is to be 
seen upon its waters, and no trace of man upon 
its shore, except where a few flat-roofed houses, 
a few palm trees, two solitary minarets, and 
the dome of a little mosque, close to the water's 
edge, marked the little town of Tabareah, the 
humble representative of the ancient Tiberias." 



170 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY, 

In the country beyond Jordan are the desolate 
remains of several ancient cities. The ruins of 
Djerash, supposed from its situation and the simi- 
larity of the name to be the ancient Gerasa, are 
of the most magnificent character, and prove the 
former magnitude and importance of that city.* 

Of the many populous and extensive cities 
with which, in the days of its prosperity, the 
Holy Land was so thickly settled, there are now 
we beleive, only four that contain over five thou- 
sand inhabitants : these are Jeruslem, Hebron, 
Saphet, and Nablous, (the ancient Shechem,) 
the three latter of which are computed to contain 
each a population of about six thousand souls. 

"When we survey the present deplorable 
state of this country, the poverty of the villages, 
the scantiness of the population ; and when we 
cast our eyes over the sites of the ruined cities, 
and regard the crumbling fabrics of past times 
mouldering to pieces, the towering column and 
the sculptured stone half covered by the burying 
sand,"f what a mournful contrast do we witness 
to the time when the land, " flowing with milk 
and honey," was the " glory of all lands ;" 
when it was also "full of silver and gold, and 
there was no end of its treasures," and Jerusa- 
* Burckhardt. t Addison. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 171 

lem, its metropolis, was " the joy of the whole 
earth !" What a wonderful attestation does it 
furnish of the truth of Scripture prophecy! 
"The land is a witness as well as the people. 
The Israelite in our streets, whose appearance 
was delineated with such graphic precision by 
the legislator prophet more than thirty-three 
centuries ago, is not a surer evidence of the 
inspiration of the sacred volume," than the 
general desolation, and almost depopulation, 
of the land in which they formerly dwelt. 

Indeed, so striking is the general aspect of 
poverty, desolation, and barrenness which 
this region now exhibits, that some writers 
have adduced it as an objection to the truth of 
Scripture, affirming that so barren, wretched, 
and inconsiderable a country could never have 
been the pleasant and fruitful land which the 
sacred writers represent it to have been, or 
have sustained the immense population which 
are said to have inhabited it. But these ob- 
jectors are either ignorant or forgetful that the 
present desolation of the Holy Land was dis- 
tinctly foretold by the prophets ; and therefore, 
so far from being an objection to the truth of 
the Bible, it is, on the contrary, a strong con- 
firmation of it; while its ancient fertility and 
populousness, which they affect to deny, is 



172 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

established by evidence, independent of Scrip- 
ture, which can neither be gains ay ed nor refuted. 
Of the province of Galilee, Josephus says, in 
addition to what we have already quoted, [page 
168,] that "its fruitfulness was such as to 
invite the most slothful to take pains in its cul- 
tivation." Of the provinces of Judea and Sa- 
maria, he tells us that " they are each of them 
very full of people, which is the greatest sign 
of excellence and abundance."* Tacitus, the 
Roman historian, who, it should be remem- 
bered, was strongly prejudiced against the 
Jews, speaking of their country, says, — " The 
soil is rich and fertile ; besides the fruits 
known in Italy, the palm and balm tree flourish 
in great luxuriance. "f 

" Those," observes Mr. Wilde, " who ex- 
claim against the infertility and barrenness of 
this country, should recollect that want of cul- 
tivation gives it much of the sterile and barren 
appearance which it now presents to the tra- 
veller. The plough used in that country is 
one of the rudest instruments of any implement 
of the kind I have seen. It does little more 
than scratch the soil, making a furrow scarcely 
three inches deep." We cannot fairly judge 
of its former capabilities by its present con- 

* Wars, book iii, chap. 3. t Hist., book vi, sec. 6. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 173 

dition. Successively wasted by the Romans, 
Saracens, and crusaders, and then falling under 
the iron yoke of Turkish despotism, and ex- 
posed to hordes of plundering Arabs, it is im- 
possible that it should now present the appear- 
ance of fertility and abundance which it an- 
ciently did. Yet even under these unfavourable 
circumstances it still exhibits such manifest 
tokens of its former productiveness and high 
state of cultivation, as to enable the traveller 
to " discover without difficulty that this fine 
country was not surpassed in beauty and exu- 
berant production by any country of Western 
Asia."* " The fruits," remarks Mr. JolifTe, 
" surpass in richness any thing that I have else- 
where met with." " Were good government, 
good faith, and good manners to flourish in this 
land for half a century, it would literally be- 
come again a land flowing with milk and 
honey."f " Under a wise and beneficent govern- 
ment," observes Dr. Clarke, "the produce of 
the Holy Land would exceed all calculation. 
Its perennial harvest,;}; the salubrity of its air, 
its limpid springs, its rivers, lakes, and match- 
less plains, its hills and vales, — all these, 
added to the serenity of its climate, prove this 

* Pictorial Bible. f Jowett. 

t Levit. xxvi, 5 ; Amos ix, 13. 



174 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

land to be indeed a field which the Lord hath 
blessed" Speaking of a portion of the country 
then under the sway of a comparatively mild 
governor, he says, — " It was pleasing to ob- 
serve the effects of better government ; — the 
cultivation was everywhere marvellous ; — the 
hills, from their bases to their summits, were 
entirely covered with gardens ; all of these 
were free from weeds, and in the highest 
state of agricultural perfection. — A sight of this 
territory can alone convey any adequate idea 
of its surprising produce."* Even the most 
barren and rugged mountains are capable of 
cultivation, and were anciently made to contri- 
bute greatly toward the support of a large 
population. From the base to the summit 
they were hewed into terraces, which were 
covered with soil. Upon these they "planted 
the fig, the olive, and the vine, and sowed 
corn, and all kinds of pulse, which, favoured 
by the usual spring and autumnal rains, by 
the dew which never fails, by the warmth 

* The doctor here speaks of the country between Na- 
blous and Jerusalem. Its short-lived prosperity, however, 
passed away with the government of the pacha under 
whom it arose ; and this region now presents the same 
desolate aspect which it did when visited by Maundrell, 
whose description of it is given on page 158. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 175 

of the sun, and the mild climate, produced 
the finest fruit, and most excellent corn."* 
Traces of this kind of cultivation are still to be 
seen in the mountainous districts of the Holy 
Land, and are mentioned by almost every tra- 
veller.! 

By no writers is the former excellence of 
this country more positively asserted than by 
Gibbon and Yolney, men whose devotion to the 
cause of infidelity was so notorious that none 
will suspect them of being influenced in their 
statements by any prejudices in favour of divine 
revelation. The former says, — " Syria, one 
of the countries that have been improved by 
the most early cultivation, is not unworthy 
the preference. The heat of the climate is 
tempered by the vicinity of the sea and moun- 
tains, by the plenty of wood and water ; and 
the produce of a fertile soil affords the sub- 
sistence, and encourages the propagation of 
men and animals. From the age of David to 
that of Heraclius, the country was overspread 
with ancient and flourishing cities. "J Yolney, 
after estimating the number of inhabitants in 
Syria, observes, — " So feeble a population, in 

* D'Arvieux. 

fMaundrell, Shaw, Volney, Clarke, Hardy, Jowett, &c 

X Decline and Fall, chap, 51. 



176 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

so excellent a country, may well excite our 
astonishment ; but this will be still increased 
if we compare the present number of inhabit- 
ants with that of ancient times. We are in- 
formed by the philosophical geographer, Strabo, 
that the territories of Jamnia and Joppa in 
Palestine, alone, were formerly so populous, 
as to be able to bring forty thousand armed 
men into the field. At present they could 
scarcely furnish three thousand. From the 
accounts we have of Judea in the time of Titus, 
and which are to be esteemed tolerably ac- 
curate, that country must have contained four 
millions of inhabitants ; but at present there are 
not, perhaps, above three hundred thousand.* If 
we go still further back into antiquity, we shall 
find the same populousness among the Philis- 
tines, the Phoenicians, and in the kingdoms 
of Samaria and Damascus." After stating 
that some writers have called in question these 
facts, he proceeds to show the fallacy of their 
objections ; and then he adds, — " There is 
nothing in nature or experience to contradict 
the great population of high antiquity : without 

* The word "Judea," as used by Volney in the above 
statement, must be understood as including the whole of 
Palestine, and not merely the Roman province of Judea, 
which comprised only the southern section of the country. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 177 

appealing to the positive testimony of history, 
there are innumerable monuments which de- 
pose in favour of the fact. Such are the pro- 
digious quantities of ruins dispersed over the 
plains, and even in the mountains, at this day 
deserted. On the most remote parts of Carmel 
are found wild vines and olive trees, which 
must have been conveyed thither by the 
hand of man ; and in Lebanon, the rocks now 
abandoned to fir trees and brambles, present 
us in a thousand places with terraces, which 
prove they were anciently better cultivated, 
and consequently much more populous than in 
our days." Thus the Scripture accounts of the 
ancient fertility and populousness of the Holy 
Land are fully confirmed, both by the testimony 
of history, and the present indications of the 
country, " even our enemies themselves being 
judges." 

It was predicted that the desolation of the 
country would be such as to excite the asto- 
nishment of those who should witness it. 
" The generation to come of your children, 
and the stranger that shall come from a far 
land, shall say, when they see the plagues of 
that land, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus 
unto this land ? What meaneih the heat of this 
12 



178 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

great anger V More than three thousand years 
after these words were spoken, Volney, a dis- 
tinguished traveller, but a professed infidel, 
and a scoffer at the Scriptures, visits this smit- 
ten country. He is a stranger from a far land. 
Deeply impressed with the melancholy aspect 
of every thing around him, he exclaims, — 
11 The history of past times strongly presented 
itself to my thoughts. — I enumerated the king- 
doms of Damascus and Idumea ; of Jerusalem 
and Samaria ; and the warlike states of the 
Philistines ; and the commercial republics of 
Phoenicia. This Syria, said I to myself, then 
contained a hundred flourishing cities, and 
abounded with towns, villages, and hamlets. 
Everywhere one might have seen cultivated 
fields, frequented roads, and crowded habita- 
tions. Ah ! what are become of those ages of 
abundance and of life 1 What are become 
of so many productions of the hand of man ? — 
Alas ! I have traversed this desolate country, I 
have visited the places that were the theatre of 
so much splendour, and I have beheld nothing 
but solitude and desertion. I looked for those an- 
cient people and their works, and all I could find 
was a faint trace, like to what the foot of a 
traveller leaves on the sand. The temples are 
thrown down, the palaces demolished, the 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 179 

ports filled up, the towns destroyed; and the 
earth, stripped of its inhabitants, seems a dreary 
burying place. — Great God ! from whence pro- 
ceed suck melancholy revolutions? For what 
cause is the fortune of these countries so strik- 
ingly changed ? Why is not that ancient popu- 
lation reproduced and perpetuated ' ?"* This 
remarkable verification of a Scripture prophecy 
occurs in a work written with the avowed de- 
sign of overthrowing the religion of the Bible. 
How truly is it said, "He maketh the wrath 
of man to praise Him !" 

Thus have the threatened judgments of the 
Lord been visited upon the inheritance of 
Israel. The land is brought into desola- 
tion, — the highways are desolate, — the cities are 
waste. 

" To hill and mountain the devouring curse 
Hath clung ; and rivers down unpeopled vales 
Like mournful pilgrims glide." 

And this state of desolation, we are assured, 
is to continue so long as the Jews " are in 
their enemies' land," Levit. xxvi, 34. " Thus 
there may almost be said to be a kind of sym- 
pathetic feeling between the bereaved country 

* Volney's Ruins, chap. 2. 



180 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

and its banished people;" the land, lying deso- 
late, mourns the absence of her children, awaits 
their return, and refuses to be comforted till 
they are restored to her. And they shall be 
restored. The " sure word of prophecy" hath 
declared it. " The mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken it." Even the very terms of the threat- 
ening, — " the land shall enjoy her sabbaths, 
while she lieth desolate without them," — indi- 
cate that a period shall arrive which will termi- 
nate at once the dispersion of the people, and the 
desolation of the country. The same prophecy 
also expressly declares that if the people shall 
confess their iniquity, and humble their hearts, 
then the Lord will "remember his covenant 
with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob," and will 
also " remember the land," Gen. xvii, 7, 8, 19 ; 
xxviii, 14; Levit. xxvi, 40-45. 

The writings of the later prophets abound 
with predictions of the restoration of the Jews 
to their own land. It is true that these predic- 
tions were delivered previous to their return from 
the Babylonish captivity, and that the greater 
part of them were spoken with especial refer- 
ence to that event ; but still there are many 
which were not, and could not have been, ful- 
filled at that time, and must, therefore, refer to 
a restoration which is yet to come. Such is 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 181 

the promise contained in Isaiah lxi, 4, where 
it is said, — 

" They shall build the old wastes, 

They shall raise up the former desolations, 

And shall repair the waste cities, 

The desolation of many generations." 

These words cannot refer to the return of 
the Jews from Babylon, for they were not there 
" many generations :" indeed, some of the very 
individuals who were carried there at the com- 
mencement of the captivity lived to return to 
Jerusalem, and witness the founding of the 
second temple. Ezra iii, 12. 

The return of the Jews from Babylon was 
but a partial one ; the great body of the people 
did not return to their own land. But Ezekiel 
(xxxix, 25-30) foretels a restoration so com- 
plete that there shall be "none of them left 
among the heathen.' , This prophecy, there- 
fore, yet remains to be fulfilled. m 

There are other prophecies in which the 
return of the Jews to their own land is con- 
nected with their subjection to the kingdom 
of the Messiah. Thus in Ezekiel xxxiv, 
11-13,23, it is said, — 

" Thus saith the Lord God ; 
Behold, as a shepherd searcheth out his flock 
In the day that he is among his sheep that are scat- 
tered ; 



182 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

So will I seek out my sheep, 

\nd will deliver them from all places whither they 

have been scattered. 
And I will bring them out from the people, 
And gather them from the countries, 
And will bring them to their own land, 
And feed them upon the mountains of Israel. 
And I will set up one Shepherd over them, 
And he shall feed them, 
Even my servant David ; 
He shall feed them, and he shall be their Shepherd." 

A prediction of similar import is found in 
Ezekiel xxxvii, 21, 24, 25. 

" I will take the children of Israel from among the hea- 
then whither they be gone, 

And will gather them on every side, 

And bring them into their own land. 

And David my servant shall be King over them, 

And they shall have one Shepherd ; 

And they shall dwell in the land that I have given to 
Jacob my servant, 

Wherein your fathers have dwelt, 

And they shall dwell therein for ever ; 

And my servant David shall be their Prince for ever." 

These predictions, as Dr. A. Clarke* ob- 
serves, can refer only to the times of the 
Messiah, who is here intended by the terms 
Shepherd, and David, which are also applied 

* See his notes on these passages, and on the parallel 
texts. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 183 

to him in other passages, both of the Old and 
New Testaments * So, also, they are under 
stood by the Jewish rabbins, who, in these 
prophecies, read, instead of " David," Messiah 
the son of David. David, king of Israel, had 
at this time been dead upward of four. hun- 
dred years, and there has never since been a 
ruler of any kind, either in the Jewish church 
or state, of that name. Moreover, the Jews 
have been no nation since the return from 
Babylon ; they are no nation now ; and it is 
only in the latter days that they can expect to 
be a nation, and that must be a Christian nation. 
We are obliged, therefore, from the evidence 
of these prophecies, — from the evidence of 
the above facts, — from the evidence of the 
rabbins themselves, — and from the evidence 
of the New Testament, to consider these texts 
as applying to Jesus Christ, the promised 
Messiah, who has been a light to lighten the 
Gentiles, and will yet be the glory of his people 
Israel. 

That they shall again be restored to the 
country of their ancestors, is the universal 
expectation of the Jews themselves. They 

* Isa. lv, 3, 4 ; Jer. xxx, 3-1 1 ; Hosea iii, 4, 5 ; Matt, 
xii, 23; xxi, 9 ; John x, 14-16 ; Heb. xiii, 20. 



184 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

never forget the " pleasant land," but re- 
tain, under every variety of outward circum- 
stances, the same imperishable attachment to 
their ancient heritage. The burden of their 
song is unchangeable : — 

" If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget 
her cunning. 
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the 

roof of my mouth ; 
If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." 

Psalm cxxxvii, 5. 

" No matter what the station or rank ; no mat- 
ter what, or how distant, the country where 
the Jew resides, he still lives upon the hope 
that he will some time journey Zionward."* 
But ere this takes place, they must abandon 
their fallacious hopes of a future Messiah, and 
acknowledge as their Saviour and Redeemer 
him whom their fathers rejected and crucified. 
Then may they expect the fulfilment of their 
dearest wishes — the realization of their long- 
cherished hopes. " An exile of eighteen cen- 
turies has not extinguished the heaven-char- 
tered title of the * seed of Abraham' to the final 
and everlasting possession of the Promised 
Land." Gen. xvii, 7, 8. The word of the Lord 

* Wilde. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 185 

concerning Zion, which he hath neither forgot- 
ten nor forsaken, is, — 

" Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my 

hands ; 
Thy walls are continually before me. 
Thy children shall make haste ; 
Thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go 

forth of thee." Isa. xlix, 14-23. 

God will "remember the land," and gather 
together unto it his ancient people. From the 
thousand lands in which they are scattered 
shall the weary-footed wanderers direct their 
steps toward the home of their fathers ; " and 
the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come 
to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon 
their heads." They shall build up the waste 
places of Jerusalem, and inhabit again the 
mountains of Israel. " The wilderness and 
the solitary place shall be glad for them ; and 
the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the 
rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice 
even with joy and singing : the glory of Leba- 
non shall be given unto it, the excellency of 
Carmel and of Sharon. — Violence shall no 
more be heard in their land, wasting nor de- 
struction within their borders ; but they shall 
call their walls Salvation, and their gates 
Praise. The people also shall be all right- 



186 



SCRIPTURE PROr." 



eous ; and they shall inherit the land for 
ever. — I the Lord will hasten it in his 



TIME. 




'And she, being desolate, shall sit upon the ground." — Isa. iii,26. 

Who is this that mournful sits 

Beneath the palm tree's shade ! 
To the conqueror stern submits, 

In trophied pride array'd 1 
None sustains the head depress'd, 

None the word of comfort speaks ! 
Lo, her sorrows soil her breast, 

Her tears are on her cheeks ! 



Ah ! it is Zion in captivity 
That thus sits desolate ! 
Her sad estate 
A minish'd band of trembling elders see. 
Silent beneath her ruin'd towers they stand ; 
Or, lowly on the ground, 
In floods of sorrow drown'd, 
Bewail Jehovah's hand, 
In judgment resting still on their once favour'd land. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 187 

Who but will join in deep lament, 

With thy sad sons in banishment 1 

Who will not mingle tears with thine, 

Denied, deserted Palestine 1 
While o'er the scene of thy solemnities 

They tarn their wond'ring eyes, 

And see the Gentile there, 

Where once thy house of prayer 
Received the radiance of the orient skies. 

Ye who love the sacred land 

To ancient Israel given, 
Ye who seek to understand 

The mysteries of heaven, 
Listen to the raptured tones 

Of Zion's loftiest lyre, 
Form, with Abraham's favour'd sons, 

One sweet harmonious choir. 
From each respondent comes the strain, 

That He who in disdain 
Disown'd Jerusalem, 

Will yet recall her to his arms again. 

Her sons shall from the dust arise, 
Hear the heralds of the skies, 
Hail with joy Messiah's name, 
Him the Prince of life proclaim, 
Loud, though late, hosannas raise, 
Christ, the son of David, praise. 

Then shall the Lord his ancient word fulfil ; 

To David's head the regal crown restore ; 
Again his temple build on Zion's hill ; 

Replant his vine, to root it out no more. 



188 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Israel's mountains then shall bear 

The withering curse no more ; 
Truth and justice ruling there 

The blessing shall restore. 

The sacred land, now desolate, 
Shall then regain its lost estate ; 
Then shall the towers of Zion stand secure ; 
Her bright foundations sure, 
Reflecting heaven's own beams, shall evermore endure. 

Haste, then, ye days of glory, when the light 

Now beaming from the star of prophecy 
Shall fade, absorb'd in perfect vision bright : 
When Zion's watchmen, seeing eye to eye, 
From all her walls shall shout salvation nigh : 
When with the herald's voice 
Re-echoing wilds rejoice, 
And loud winds waft it to the listening sky. 

Mrs. Bulmkr. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 189 



CHAPTER VI. 

PROPHECIES RESPECTING AMMON AND MOAB. 

The Ammonites and Moabites descended from Lot— Were noted 
for their hostility to the Jews— Prophecies respecting the Ammon- 
ites — The Ammonites as a nation are perished — Contrast be- 
tween the fate of the Ammonites and that of the Jews — The 
country of Ammon until recently but little known — Desolation 
of Rabbah foretold — Fulfilment of this prediction — Testimony of 
Seetzen, Burckhardt, Buckingham, and Lord Lindsay — General 
desolation of the country — Prophecies respecting Moab — The 
Moabites carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar — Are destroyed from 
being a people — Their country desolate and almost uninhabited — 
Their ancient cities ruined and deserted — Many of these ruined 
sites still retain their ancient names — Conclusion. 

" I will make of thee," said Jehovah to Abra- 
ham, " a great nation ; and I will bless him that 
blesseth thee, and I will curse him that curseth 
thee," Gen. xii, 2, 3. The latter part of this 
prediction is strikingly illustrated by the fate 
of the various nations which at different times 
have risen up againt the Jews " to do them 
hurt." 

Among these we find the Ammonites and 
Moabites, who were the descendants of Ben- 
ammi and Moab, the two sons of Lot. Gen. xix, 
37, 38. Both of these nations were gross idola- 
ters, and were distinguished for their enmity 
to the Hebrews, embracing every opportunity 



190 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

to harass and oppress them. They refused 
them a passage through their country when on 
their journey from Egypt to Canaan, and like- 
wise hired Balaam to curse them, but God 
turned his curse into a blessing. Deut. xxiii, 
3-5. In the time of the judges they invaded 
and subdued the land of Israel, and oppressed 
the people for eighteen years. Judges iii, 12-14. 
In the reign of David, however, they were in 
their turn conquered by the Israelites, and re- 
mained in a state of subjection, paying tribute 
to the kings of Israel, until after the death of 
Ahab, when they revolted, (2 Kings iii, 4, 5,) and 
though afterward several times defeated, they 
do not appear to have been ever again entirely 
subdued. They acted as the auxiliaries of Ne- 
buchadnezzar when he invaded Judea in the 
reign of Jehoiakim. They reviled and insulted 
the Jews when Judea was laid waste, and pro- 
fanely exulted over the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem, and the desecration of the temple. For 
this, as well as for their general wickedness, 
the judgments of the Lord were pronounced 
against them. Isa. xvi, 6-14 ; Jer. xlviii ; xlix, 
1,2; Ezek. xxv, 1-10; Amos i, 13-15 ; Zeph. 
ii, 7-10. 

The prophecies respecting these nations are 
of a kindred character, and have been most 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 191 

literally fulfilled. We will first notice those 
which refer to the land and people of 

AMMON. 
" The word of the Lord," saith Ezekiel, 
" came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy 
face against the Ammonites, and prophesy 
against them; and say unto the Ammonites, 
Hear ye the word of the Lord God ; thus saith 
the Lord God, — 

* Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when 

it was profaned ; 
And against the land of Israel, when it was desolate ; 
And against the house of Judah, when they went into 

captivity ; 
Behold, therefore, I will deliver thee to the men of the 

east for a possession, 
And they shall set their palaces in thee, 
And make their dwellings in thee : 
They shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk. 

And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, 
And the Ammonites* a couching-place for flocks : 

* By the word " Ammonites," we must of course under- 
stand the chief city or cities of the Ammonites, for it is 
not expressive of desolation that flocks should pasture any- 
where in the open country ; but it is eminently so, that 
they should be stabled among the ruins, and fed upon the 
sites of cities once populous and flourishing. That this is 
the sense is shown by the context, as well as by other 
passages. — Pictorial Bible, 



192 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

And ye shall know that I am the Lord. 
Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, 
And will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen ; 
And I will cut thee off from the people, 
And I will cause thee to perish out of the countries ; 
I will destroy thee ; and thou shalt know that I am the 
Lord.' n Ezek. xxv, 1-7. 

From these predictions, and from some others 
of a similar import, (Zeph. ii, 7-10,) it will be 
seen, that the Ammonites were to perish as a 
nation — that Rabbah, their capital, was to be 
utterly ruined — and their country to become 
desolate. 

/ icill cut thee off from the people — / will cause 
thee to perish out of the countries — / will destroy 
thee. — The Ammonites suffered in common with 
the neighbouring nations, when Nebuchadnez- 
zar invaded Judea and the adjacent countries, 
and carried the inhabitants into captivity, but, 
as was foretold by Jeremiah, (xlix, 6,) they 
were, on the subversion of the Babylonish em- 
pire, permitted to return to their own land. 
After this we find them exposed to the various 
revolutions with which the people of Syria and 
Palestine were visited, being sometimes sub- 
ject to the kings of Egypt, and sometimes to 
those of Syria. During the persecutions of the 
Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes, the Ammonites 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECV. 193 

exercised great cruelties against such of them 
as lived in their parts : in consequence of this 
they were attacked by Judas Maccabeus, who 
defeated them in several battles, and took the 
city of Jazer, with the adjoining towns.* This 
was their last conflict with the descendants of 
Israel ; their power was broken, and from this 
period they rapidly declined, until at length, in 
accordance with the prophecy, they became 
extinct as a nation. They were gradually 
blended with the Arabs, and Origen, who lived 
in the fourth century, assures us that in his 
days they were only known under this general 
name. 

There is in this particular a striking differ- 
ence between the fate of the Ammonites and 
that of the Jews. The latter, though they have 
for many centuries been dispersed among all 
nations, have survived to this day as a distinct 
people ; and their renowned land has never, 
since they left it, ceased to be known and regard- 
ed with interest, because they once occupied it. 
But for ages the existence of the Ammonites 
as a nation, or even as a tribe, has been extinct ; 
none are now called by their name, nor do any 
claim a descent from them. And as to their 

* 1 Maccabees v, 1-8 ; Josephus, Ant., book xii, chap. 
8, sec. 1. 

13 



194 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

country, it has only been within the last few 
years that it has been noticed by European 
travellers, or that any information concerning 
it has been acquired. Till then its situation 
generally was collected from Scripture intima- 
tions, which, with some information from an- 
cient writers concerning its towns, formed the 
amount of what was known respecting the land 
of Ammon. And even now, while the antiqua- 
rian traveller knows that he is in that land, re- 
cognises the names which tlie Bible has made 
familiar, marks the position and character of 
sites and ruins, and, whether he intends it or 
not, collects information to confirm the truth 
of Scripture prophecy, — the few inhabitants, 
while they preserve the names which the Am- 
monites gave to their towns, have no traditions 
concerning that people, nor do they know 
whose land it is that they occupy. So utterly 
is the memory of the Ammonites perished, that 
it would at this day be unknown that such a 
people ever existed, or that the country in 
question was ever in their possession, were it 
not that the sacred book preserves the record 
of their history and doom.* They are " cut 
off from the people," and are " no more re- 
membered among the nations." 

* See Pictorial Bible, note on Ezek. xxv 7-10. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 195 

/ will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the 
Ammonites a couching-place for flocks. Ammon 
shall be a perpetual desolation. — The precise and 
striking manner in which the prophecies re- 
specting this city have >^n accomplished, 
gives the place more interest than it could his- 
torically claim, although even that is not incon- 
siderable. Rabbah, called also Rabbath-am- 
mon, was a city of great antiquity, having been 
the capital of the Ammonites before the He- 
brews entered the land of Canaan. It was 
taken from the Ammonites by David, (2 Sam. 
xii, 26-29,) but when the tribes beyond Jordan 
were carried into captivity, the Ammonites re- 
gained possession of the cities which had been 
taken from them. 

Although Rabbah appears to have been seve- 
ral times wholly or partially destroyed in war, 
by the kings of Babylon, and the Greek mo- 
narchs of Syria and Egypt, yet the successive 
conquerors, down to the time of the Romans, 
appear to have rebuilt and improved the city, 
being sensible of its advantageous situation, so 
that it very long maintained its rank as the 
local metropolis. From Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
by whom it was restored and fortified, it re- 
ceived the name of Philadelphia, but some of 
the ancient writers continued to call it by its 



196 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

old name. The character of some of its ex- 
isting remains shows that the place was im- 
proved and embellished while possessed by the 
Romans ; but after their time it seems to have 
lost its consequence, although the date of its 
final desolation is unknown. In the time of 
Jerome it still subsisted under the name of Phi- 
ladelphia. The Orientals, however, preserve old 
names with remarkable tenacity, and the ruin- 
ed city of the Ammonites is still called Amman 
by the natives of the country. The researches 
of Seetzen, Burckhardt, Buckingham, G. Robin- 
son, and Lord Lindsay, have made us fully ac- 
quainted with this site, concerning which we 
had previously no information. The principal 
ruins lie along the banks of a small river, call- 
ed Moiet Ammon, [the water of Amnion,] and 
occupy an area formed by the openings of two 
valleys. At the point where the valleys meet, 
and commanding the entrance, there is a high 
hill, on the summit of which are the remains 
of a strong and extensive fortress — almost a 
town in itself — the walls of which are formed 
of huge blocks of stone, resting one upon an- 
other, without any cement, and appear to be 
of very remote antiquity * 

* This was probably the strong hold which Joab wished 
David to have the honour of taking, after he had himsorf 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 197 

Although this town has been destroyed and 
deserted for many ages, there are still some re- 
markable ruins which attest its ancient splen- 
dour. Among these, Seetzen and Burckhardt 
enumerate a square building, highly ornamented, 
which has been, perhaps, a mausoleum ; the ruins 
of a large palace ; a magnificent amphitheatre 
of immense size, and well preserved ; a temple 
with a great number of columns ; the ruins of a 
large church; the remains of a temple with 
columns set in a circular form, and which are 
of extraordinary size ; the remains of the an- 
cient wall, with several other edifices. Burck- 
hardt further states, that a large portion of the 
site is " covered with the ruins of private build- 
ings — but nothing of them remains, except the 
foundations and some of the door posts." When 
Mr. Buckingham visited Rabbath-ammon, he 
halted for the night with a tribe of Arabs, who 
were found encamped among the ruins, in a 
hollow behind the top of the threatre. Next 
morning he makes the following remark in his 
journal : — " During the night I was almost en- 
tirely prevented from sleeping, by the bleating 
of the flocks, the neighing of mares, and the 
barking of dogs." He also describes, among 

taken the lower town, which he calls " the city of wa- 
ters.'* — Pictorial Bible. 



198 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

the ruins, a building surrounding " an open 
square court, with arched recesses on each side. 
The recesses in the northern and southern 
walls were originally open passages, and had 
arched doorways facing each other ; but the 
first of these was found wholly closed up, and 
the last was partially filled up, leaving only a 
narrow passage, just sufficient for the entrance 
of one man, and of the goats which the Arab 
keepers drive in here occasionally for shelter 
during the night." 

The latest account of Rabbah is that given 
by Lord Lindsay, who thus describes it : — 
11 We descended a precipitous stony slope into 
the valley of Ammon, and crossed a beautiful 
stream,* bordered at intervals by strips of stunt- 
ed grass, often interrupted ; no oleanders cheer- 
ed the eye with their rich blossoms ; the hills 
on both sides were rocky and bare, and pierced 
with excavations and natural caves. Here, at 
a turning in the narrow valley, commences the 
antiquities of Amman. It was situated on both 
sides the stream. The dreariness of its present 
aspect is quite indescribable — it looks like the 

* The Moiet Ammon. It has its source in a pond a 
few hundred paces from the south-west end of the town, 
and after passing under ground several times, empties it- 
self into the Jabbok. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 199 

abode of death ; the valley stinks with dead 
camels ; one of them was rotting in the stream; 
and although we saw none among the ruins, 
they were absolutely covered in every direc- 
tion with their dung. That morning's ride would 
have convinced a skeptic. How runs the pro- 
phecy I — ' / will make Rabbah a stable for camels ; 
and the Ammonites a couching-place for flocks ; 
and ye shall know that I am the Lord /' Nothing 
but the croaking of frogs, and screams of wild 
birds broke the silence, as we advanced up 
this valley of desolation. — It was a bright, 
cheerful morning, but still the valley is a very 
dreary spot, even when the sun shines bright- 
est. Vultures were garbaging on a camel, as 
we slowly rode back through the glen, and re- 
ascended the akiba by which we entered it. 
Amman is now quite deserted except by the 
Bedouins, who water their flocks at its little 
river. We met sheep and goats by thousands, 
and camels by hundreds, coming down to drink, 
all in beautiful condition." 

When the prophets of Israel pronounced 
the doom of Rabbah, more than a thousand- 
years had given uninterrupted experience of 
its stability; for a thousand years has it now 
lain desolate ; yet still it is not so utterly ex- 
tinct but that the Bedouin, who alone frequents 



200 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

the spot, can fold his cattle in its temples 
and palaces, fulfilling the divine prediction, 
that the proud Rabbah of the Ammonites should 
be " a stable for camels, and a couching-place 
for flocks." 

The whole country also partakes of the same 
desolate character. Mr. G. Robinson says, — 
"To the southward of the river Zerka (the Jab- 
bok of the Scriptures) commences the country 
anciently inhabited by the Ammonites ; a coun- 
try in those days as remarkable for its rich 
productions, as for the number and strength of 
the cities which covered its surface. It is now 
one vast desert, having long since ceased to be 
inhabited by man in a civilized state." It con- 
sists of a series of extensive plains, having a 
rich soil, but exhibiting no traces of cultivation 
Mr. Buckingham, viewing one of these plains 
from an eminence, observes, — "Throughout its 
whole extent were seen ruined towns in every 
direction, both before, behind, and on each side 
of us ; generally seated on small eminences, all at 
a short distance from each other ; and all we 
had yet seen bearing evident marks of former 
opulence and consideration. My guide, who 
had been over every part of it, assured me that 
the whole plain was covered with the finest 
soil, and capable of being the most productive 



SCRIPTURE PROFHECY. 201 

corn land in the world. It is true that for the 
space of thirty miles there did not appear to 
me a single interruption of hill, rock, or wood, 
to impede immediate tillage ; and it is certain 
that the great plain of Esdraelon, so justly 
celebrated for its extent and fertility, is inferior 
in both to this plain. Like Esdraelon, it ap- 
pears also to have been once the seat of an 
active and numerous population." " While 
numerous ruins indicate how rich and populous 
the country once was, it is now without fixed 
inhabitants. The wandering tribes resort to it 
in the summer months, for the sake of the 
pasturage which it offers ; but when they have 
left, the ashes and dung of their encampments 
are the only signs of human occupation which 
the country affords. Thus truly has Ammon be- 
come " a desolation," as the prophets foretold."* 

We now pass on to the prophecies respect- 
ing 

MOAB, 

which are more numerous, and equally explicit. 

" Against Moab, thus saith the Lord of hosts, 
Wo unto Nebo ! for it is spoiled ; 
Kiriathaim is confounded and taken ; 
Misgab is confounded and dismayed. 

* Pictorial History of Palestine 



20:i scripture PROPHECV. 

The spoiler shall coine upon every city, 

And no city shall escape ; 

The valley also shall perish, 

And the plain shall be destroyed. 

Give wings unto Moab, 

That, it may flee and get away : 

For the cities thereof shall be desolate, 

Without any to dwell therein. 

Moab hath been at ease from his youth, 

And he hath settled on his lees ; 

And he hath riot been emptied from vessel to vessel, 

Neither hath he gone into captivity. 

Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, 

That I will send unto him wanderers that shall cause 

him to wander. 
Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon : 
Come down from thy glory and sit in thirst, 
For the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, 
And he shall destroy thy strong holds. 

Moab is confounded ; for it is broken down ; 
Howl and cry ; 

Tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled. 
And judgment is come upon the plain country ; 
Upon Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath, 
And upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, 
And upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, 
And upon all the cities of Moab, far or near. 
And joy and gladness is taken 

From the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab. 
And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, 
Because he hath magnified himself against the Lord." 

Jer. xlviii. 
" Moab shall be a perpetual desolation. 1 ' Zeph. ii, 9. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 203 

These predictions began to be accomplished 
when Nebuchadnezzar, five years after the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, invaded Moab and car- 
ried away its inhabitants ; thus, according to 
the prophecy, causing to wander from their 
home, the people who had never before " gone 
into captivity." Although they were probably 
permitted to return to their own land when Cyrus 
overthrew the kingdom of Babylon, yet it does 
not appear that they were ever again an inde- 
pendent nation. They were successively sub- 
ject to the Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, and 
Romans ; and have now, like their brethren 
the Ammonites, long since been destroyed 
from being a people; their very name was lost, 
many centuries ago, and they have become 
mingled with the Jews and Arabians. 

Respecting the land and cities of Moab, the 
prophecies are remarkably full and explicit, but 
not more so than the evidence of their complete 
fulfilment, which the present state of that 
country furnishes. 

Moab shall be a perpetual desolation. The 
valley shall perish, and the plain shall be de- 
stroyed. — The land of Moab lay on the eastern 
side of the Dead Sea, to the south, and partly 
to the north, of the river Arnon. The surface 



204 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

of the country is more diversified with hill and 
dale than is that of the Ammonites, further 
east. The valleys, through which streams flow 
at all times of the year, are generally beauti- 
fully wooded. Although the land now lies de- 
solate, and the sand and salt of the desert 
and the Dead Sea encroach upon its borders, 
there is not wanting abundant evidence of its 
ancient fertility and numerous population. The 
land thus desert is eminently fertile in its natu- 
ral character, and continues to afford rich re- 
turns in the few spots which are under cultiva- 
tion. The extraordinary number of ruined 
towns, often in close proximity to each other, 
testify that the ancient populousness of this re- 
gion was in full accordance with the rich cha- 
racter of the soil. The country may now be 
said to be abandoned, except by a few wander- 
ing and hostile Arab tribes, who pasture theii 
flocks on the wild herbage of its once cultivated 
plains. Vestiges of the ancient field enclo- 
sures may still be traced ; and there are re- 
mains of ancient highways, which in some 
places are completely paved, and in which 
there are milestones of the time of Trajan, Au- 
relius, and Severus, with the number of the 
miles still legible upon them. These latter 
facts show that the land of Moab continued 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 205 

to be populous and cultivated, down to a period 
considerably subsequent to that in which the 
canon of Scripture was closed.* There could, 
therefore, in the times of the prophets, have 
been no probability that it would ever be re- 
duced to that state of utter desolation " in 
which it has continued for so many ages, and 
which vindicates to this hour the truth of 
Scripture prophecy." 

The cities shall be desolate, without any to 
dwell therein. The spoiler shall come upon every 
city, no city shall escape. — We have already 
adverted to the ancient populousness of the 
land of Moab. There are few modern coun- 
tries so thickly covered with inhabited towns 
as Moab is with ruined and deserted ones. 
The accounts of this region were, until the 
early part of the present century, uncommonly 
meagre ; " for, through fear of the predatory 
Arabs by whom it is frequented, none of the 
numerous travellers in Palestine ventured to 
explore it. Seetzen, who, in February and 
March, 1806, not without danger of his life, 
undertook a tour from Damascus down to the 
south of Jordan and the Dead Sea, and thence 
to Jerusalem, was the first to shed a new and 
altogether unexpected light upon the topogra- 

* Pictorial Bible — Irby and Mangles — Burckhardt. 



206 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

phy of this region, and thereby upon our pro- 
phecy. He found a multitude of places, or at 
least ruins of places, still bearing the old 
names."* Since that period it has been visited 
by several other travellers. Burckhardt men- 
tions the names of forty ruined sites, which 
he passed in the course of his route through 
this country. Messrs. Irby and Mangles tell 
us, " the whole of the plains are covered with 
the sites of towns, on every eminence or spot 
convenient for the situation of one." Among 
the ruins are the remains of temples, sepulchral 
monuments, and other edifices. In some of the 
buildings are stones twenty feet in length, and 
so broad that one constitutes the thickness 
of the wall. Many of these sites of ruins still 
bear names corresponding to those by which 
the cities of Moab are designated in Scripture. 
Burckhardt says, — " The ruins of Eleale, Hesh- 
bon, Me on, Me deb a, Dibon, and Aroer, all 
situated on the north side of the Arnon, still 
subsist, to illustrate the history of the children 
of Israel. f To the south of the wild torrent 
Modjeb [Arnon] I found the considerable ruins 

* Gesenius on Isaiah. 

t Before the time of Moses, that part of Moab which 
lay north of the Arnon, had been conquered by the Amo- 
rites, from whom it was afterward taken bv the Israel- 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. - 207 

of Rabbat Moab." This city, which was the 
capital of Moab, was called Rabbath-moab, to 
distinguish it from the Ammonite city of the 
same name ; it is sometimes also called Ar ; 
the Greeks called it Areopolis. The ruins 
which still bear the name of Rabba are situ- 
ated about twenty -five miles south of the 
Arnon, on a low hill which commands the 
whole plain ; those which now appear are 
comprehended within the circuit of a little 
more than a mile. There are several remains 
of private buildings, but none entire ; and the 
only conspicuous objects among the ruins are 
the remains of a temple or palace, of which 
the walls and several niches are still stand- 
ing, the gate of another building, two Co- 
rinthian columns, and an insulated altar in the 
plain : no traces of its walls are now to be 
found. Jerome says the city was overthrown 
by an earthquake when he was a young man. — 
The name of Dibon is still preserved in a 
ruined town called Diban, situated in a fine 

ites, and given to the tribe of Reuben. When the tribes 
beyond Jordan were carried into captivity, the Moabites 
recovered this part of their old territory : they held it in 
the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and most of the cities 
of Moab mentioned by these prophets once belonged to 
the Israelites. 



208 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

plain, about three miles north of the Arnon. 
The ruins, which are of considerable extent, 
present nothing of interest. — Heshbon, now- 
called Hcsban, was situated about sixteen miles 
north of the Arnon. The ruins of a consider- 
able town still exist, and cover the sides of an 
insulated hill. There are a number of deep 
wells cut in the rocks, and also a large re- 
servoir intended to hold water for the summer 
supply of the inhabitants. — The name of Me- 
deba is still preserved in that of Madeba, ap- 
plied to a large ruined town situated on a 
round hill about six miles south-east of Hesh- 
bon. Here is an immense, well-built tank or 
cistern, one hundred and thirty yards wide by 
one hundred and fifteen deep, which, as there 
is no stream at Medeba, might still be of use to 
the Bedouins, were the surrounding ground 
cleared of the rubbish to allow the water to 
flow into it ; but, as Burckhardt remarks, such 
an undertaking is far beyond the views of the 
wandering Arabs. Not a single edifice is stand- 
ing ; but on the west side of the town are the 
remains of a temple, built of large blocks of 
stone, and apparently of great antiquity.* — 
Several other places might also be enumerated, 
* Pictorial Bible — Seetzen — Burckhardt — Irby and Man- 
gles — G. Robinson. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 209 

but as they " are remarkable for nothing but 
what is common to them with all the cities of 
Moab— their entire desolation" — it is needless 
to enter into further details. 

Of all the cities in this region, Karrak, a 
frontier town on the southern border, is the only 
one now inhabited by man. In the early ages 
of Christianity it was an important city, and 
the seat of a bishopric ; but " its walls have 
mostly fallen down, and Karrak can now justly 
lay claim to nothing more than the name of 
village." 

" The spoiler hath come upon Moab, 
And hath destroyed her strong holds ; 
Her cities are desolate, without any to dwell therein." 

" In view of the prophecies and facts in rela- 
tion to the land of Moab, we may observe, that 
w r e have here an evidence of the genuineness 
and truth of the sacred records. Here is a pro- 
phetic description of a land and its numerous 
towns, made nearly three thousand years ago, 
and in its minutest particulars it is sustained 
by all the travellers of modern times ; — every 
successive visiter brings some additional con- 
firmation of the truth of the prophecy. — The 
remains of once splendid cities, dilapidated 
walls, half demolished temples, and fragments 
broken and consumed by time, proclaim to the 
14 



210 SCRIPTURE PROPHECV. 

world that those cities are what the prophets, 
under the inspiration of God, foretold they 
would be."* 

That such numerous cities, which had sub- 
sisted for so many ages, should, all of them, 
ever be reduced to such a state of utter desola- 
tion and desertion as that in which we now 
find them, was, in the time of the prophets, an 
event so utterly improbable as to surpass all 
human conception. They were then, and at a 
period long subsequent, in the most prosperous 
and flourishing condition. Their fate could 
only have been foreseen by Him who knoweth 
the end from the beginning, and to whom the 
events of the future are as manifest as those 
that have long been past. 

* Barnes on Isaiah. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 211 

CHAPTER VII. 

PROPHECIES CONCERNING PHILISTIA. 

The Philistines — Their origin and country— Prophecies concern- 
ing them — The Philistines as a people are extinct — Their country 
neglected and well nigh depopulated — Its present condition as 
described by Volney and Addison — Ancient Gaza destroyed and 
forsaken — Description of modern Gaza — Askelon desolate and 
uninhabited — Description of its ruins — Description of the valley 
between Askelon and Gaza— Former strength and importance, 
and present state of Ashdod — Ekron is utterly destroyed. 

The Philistines were descended from Miz- 
raim, the second son of Ham, by whom Egypt 
was originally peopled. They seem to have left 
that country at an early period, and to have 
fixed themselves on the western coast of Ca- 
naan, expelling the Avites, by whom it had been 
previously occupied. The period of their set- 
tling in Canaan is unknown, but it must have 
been considerably before the time of Abraham. 
They soon became so powerful as to give to 
the whole country the name of Palestine, by 
which it was known even in the time of Moses, 
(Exod. xv, 14,) and under which it is mention- 
ed by Greek and Roman writers. The part of 
Palestine actually occupied by the Philistines 
was, however, of very inconsiderable extent, 
being merely a narrow strip extending about 



212 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

sixty miles along the coast from the " river of 
Egypt," nearly to the bay of Joppa. This tract 
of country, which, as travellers inform us, is 
still called Phalastin by the natives, is naturally 
very fertile : on the distribution of the land of 
Canaan among the Israelites it fell to the lot 
of Judah, but the people of that tribe were never 
able to dispossess the Philistines of it. In the 
time of Joshua, the country of the Philistines 
was divided into five principalities or lord- 
ships ; namely, Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Gath 
and Ekron. 

The following are some of the principal 
prophecies concerning this people, and their 
country : — 

11 Thus saith the Lord God ; 

* Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon the Philistines, 
And destroy the remnant of the sea-coasts.' " 

Ezek. XXV, 16. 
" Baldness is come upon Gaza ;* 
Askelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley." 

Jer. xlvii, 5. 

* Shaving the head was anciently, in Eastern countries, 
a token of mourning, and was commonly practised on oc- 
casion of the death of a relative, or in a time of general 
calamity. Isa. xxii, 12 ; Jer. xvi, 6 ; Micah i, 16. In al- 
lusion to this custom, the prophets use the terrn " bald- 
ness" in a figurative sense, to denote the misery that 
would follow the infliction of God's judgments upon guilty 
cities and nations. Thus in the present case, the expres- 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 213 

M For three transgressions of Ga.za, and for four, 

I will not turn away the punishment thereof. 

I will send a fire upon the walls of Gaza which shall 
devour the palaces thereof. 

And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, 

And him that holdeth the sceptre from Askelon ; 

And 1 will turn my hand against Ekron ; 

And the remnant of the Philistines shall perish." 

Amos i, 6-8. 
" The king shall perish from Gaza, 

And Askelon shall not be inhabited." Zech. ix, 5. 
" For Gaza shall be forsaken, 

And Askelon a desolation : 

They shall drive out Ashdod at the noon-day, 

And Ekron shall be rooted up. 

Wo unto the inhabitants of the sea-coasts, 

The nation of the Cherethites !* 

The word of the Lord is against you ; 

Canaan, the land of the Philistines, 

1 will even destroy thee that there shall be no inhabitant. 
And the sea-coast shall be dwellings and cottages for 

shepherds, and folds for flocks." Zech. ii, 4-6. 

" The remnant of the Philistines shall perish" 
— The Philistines were the most powerful and 
lasting enemies that the Israelites had to en- 

sion " baldness shall come upon Gaza," signifies no more 
than that it should be visited by some heavy calamity ; 
and in this sense the word is used in several other pro- 
phecies. See Isa. xv, 2 ; Ezek. vii, 18 ; Amos viii, 10. 

* The Cherethites were Philistines, as were also the 
Pelethites. 



214 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

counter. The history of the wars between 
the two people fills a large space in the histo- 
rical books of Scripture, and these contests 
continued to be waged from the commence- 
ment of the Jewish commonwealth to its disso- 
lution at the captivity. After the return of the 
Jews to their own country, the wars between 
the two nations were revived ; but in the time 
of the Maccabees, the Philistines were com- 
pletely subdued by the Jews, who took pos- 
session of the whole country. After this the 
Philistines did not long remain as a separate 
people ; they probably became incorporated 
with the Jews who settled in their country, and 
hence, though they are before us from the 
commencement to the close of the Old Testa- 
ment history, they are not once mentioned in 
the New Testament. 

" / will destroy the land of the Philistines that 
there shall be no inhabitant; and the sea-coast 
shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and 
folds for flocks" — When this prophecy was de- 
livered, and for many ages after, the land of 
the Philistines was a rich and well-cultivated 
region, with a numerous population, and strong- 
ly fortified cities. There could at that time 
have been no human probability of its eventual 



6CRIPTURE PROPHECY. 215 

desolation ; yet the words of the prophecy con- 
tain an accurate description of the state of that 
country at the present day, and for several cen- 
turies past. It partakes of the general desola- 
tion of Judea and the neighbouring states. Mr. 
Addison says, — " We were now in the country 
anciently inhabited by the warlike Philistines, 
the uncircumcised generation who at different 
times smote the Hebrews with great slaughter, 
and, in the memorable battle in which the ark 
of God was taken, ' slew of the Israelites thirty 
thousand footmen,' We were traversing the 
land renowned for the wonderful exploits of 
Samson. The country is vastly different from 
what it was in those times. The vineyards of 
Timnath no longer exist; nor are lions now 
anywhere to be found. At the present day, 
* three hundred foxes turned tail to tail,' with 
6 a firebrand in the midst between two tails,' 
might range throughout the land without doing 
much damage, there being no longer * the shocks 
and the standing corn, with the vineyards and 
olives,' to be burned up with fire, as at the pe- 
riod when Samson revenged himself on the 
Philistines for the loss of his wife. 

By the expression, " it shall be without an 
inhabitant," we are to understand that the coun- 
try should be in a great measure depopulated ; 



216 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

not that it should be literally without a single 
inhabitant. That this is the meaning of the 
prophet is evident from the words which im- 
mediately follow, and in which he describes 
the kind of persons by whom the country should 
be occupied. " And the sea-coast shall be dwell- 
ings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for 
flocks." And this, Mr. Richardson says, is the 
literal truth at present with respect to the Phi- 
listine coast in general, and in particular of 
Askelon and its vicinity. 

But the most striking corroboration of the 
divine prediction is that supplied by Volney, in 
the account which he gives of the modern 
state of the land of the Philistines. " In the 
plain between Ramla and Gaza, we meet with 
a number of villages, badly built, of dried mud, 
and which, like the inhabitants, exhibit every 
mark of poverty and wretchedness. The 
houses, on a nearer view, are only so many 
huts, sometimes detached_, and sometimes 
ranged in the form of cells around a court-yard, 
enclosed by a mud wall. In winter, the people 
and their cattle may be said to live together, 
the part of the dwelling allotted to themselves 
being only raised two feet above that in which 
they lodge their beasts. — The environs of these 
villages are sown, at the proper season, with 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 217 

grain and water-melons ; all the rest is a de- 
sert, and abandoned to the Bedouin Arabs who 
feed their flocks on it. At every step we meet 
with ruins of towns, dungeons, and castles with 
fosses, and sometimes a garrison, consisting of 
the lieutenant of an Aga, and two or three Bar- 
bary soldiers, with nothing but a shirt and a 
musket ; but more frequently they are inhabited 
by jackals, owls, and scorpions." 

" / will send a fire upon the walls of Gaza, 
which shall devour the palaces thereof. — The king 
shall perish from Gaza. — Gaza shall be for- 
saken." — Gaza was situated on the Mediterra- 
nean coast, about sixty miles south-west of Je- 
rusalem, and was the most southern of the 
Philistine principalities. Its situation as a 
frontier defence against Egypt, rendered it at 
all times a place of importance, and exposed 
it to many revolutions. In the year three hun- 
dred and thirty-one before Christ, it was taken, 
but not destroyed, by Alexander the Great, af- 
ter the siege of Tyre ; in one hundred and 
ninety-eight before Christ, it was taken and 
plundered by Antiochus, king of Syria ; and one 
hundred years later, it was utterly destroyed by 
Alexander Janneus, king of Judea. It lay de- 
solate about forty years, when it was rebuilt by 



218 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Gabinus, the Roman governor of Syria. It 
was afterward, according to Josephus, again 
destroyed by the Jews, with several other 
towns, to avenge a massacre of their country- 
men at Cesarea. This explains the expres- 
sion used by St. Luke, who, in mentioning 
Gaza, observes that it was then " desert." Acts 
viii, 26. 

Thus it appears that the Gaza which exist- 
ed in the time of the prophets did actually be- 
come ruined and desolate. It was also literally 
" forsaken," as the modern town, though it re- 
tains the name, does not occupy the site of the 
old city, having been built nearer the sea. As 
modern Gaza is the only place of any note now 
existing in the country formerly occupied by 
the Philistines, some account of it, though not 
exactly illustrating the prophecy, may not be 
altogether out of place. The best description 
is that of Sandys, of which the following 
abridgment comprises the substance : — 

" It stands upon a hill surrounded with valleys, 
and those again well-nigh environed with hills, 
most of them planted with all sorts of delicate 
fruits. The buildings mean, both of forme and 
matter ; the best but low, of rough stone, arch- 
ed within, and flat on the top, including a quad- 
rangle ; the walls surmounting their roofes, 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 2l9 

wrought through with potsheards to catch and 
strike downe the refreshing winds, having spouts 
of the same, in colour, shape, and sight, re- 
sembling great ordnance. Others covered with 
mats and hurdles ; some built of mud ; amongst 
all, not any comely or convenient. Yet there 
are some reliques left, and some impressions, 
that testifie a better condition ; for divers simple 
roofes are supported with goodly pillars of Pa- 
rian marble, some plaine, some curiously carved 
A number broken in pieces doe serve for thresh- 
olds, jambs of doores, and sides of windowes. 
On the north-east corner and summitie of the 
hill are the ruines of huge arches, sunke low 
in the earth, and other foundations of a stately 
building. — On the west side of the city, out of 
sight, and yet within hearing, is the sea, seven 
furlongs off,* where they have a decayed and 
unsafe port, of small auaile at this day to the 
inhabitants. In the valley, on the east side of 
the city, are many straggling buildings." 

" This is a more complete account of Gaza 
than any which later travellers give ; and the 
most of it is still applicable, except that some 
of the ancient remains of columns, &c, have 
disappeared. The town being surrounded by, 
and interspersed with, gardens and plantations 
* Recent travellers make it more. 



220 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

of olive and date trees, has a picturesque ap- 
pearance ; and the interior, though mean, dis- 
appoints expectation rather less than do most 
Syrian towns." — Pict. Bible. 

" Askelon shall be a desolation. — Askelon shall 
not be inhabited." — Askelon was situated about 
twelve miles north of Gaza, and was accounted 
the most strongly fortified town on the Philis- 
tine coast. It was seated on a hill which pre- 
sents an abrupt, wave-beaten face to the sea, 
but slopes gently landward, where a ridge of 
rock winds around the town in a semicircular 
direction, terminating at each extremity in the 
sea. On this rock the walls were built, the 
foundations of which remain all the way around, 
and though generally ruined, maintain in some 
places their original elevation, which was con- 
siderable ; they are of great thickness, and 
flanked with towers at different distances. It 
is remarkable that the ground falls within the 
walls, as it does on the outside ; the town is, 
therefore, situated in a hollow, so that no part 
of the buildings could be seen from without 
the walls. 

In the early ages of Christianity, Askelon 
became the seat of a bishopric ; and in the 
time of the crusades, the degree of consequence 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 221 

which it still retained, and the strength of its 
position, caused its possession to be warmly 
contested between the Christians and the Sa- 
racens. Since the expulsion of the Christians 
it has ceased to be a place of any importance. 
" Sandys, early in the seventeenth century, 
describes it then as ' a place of no note ; more 
than that, the Turke doth keepe there a garri- 
son.' It is now of still less note, being an en- 
tirely deserted ruin, — i a scene of desolation,' 
says Mr. JolifFe, ' the most complete I ever wit- 
nessed, except at Nicopolis.' " — Pict. Bible. 

The fullest description of the present state 
of Askelon is that given by Mr. Addison, 
which, though too lengthy to be inserted en- 
tire, is vet too interesting to be altogether 
omitted. The following abridgment embraces 
the most important particulars : — " We now 
crossed a bare, uncultivated country, and the 
guide, pointing to a hill in front, upon which 
some crumbling walls were visible, announced 
to us ' the ruins of Askelon.' We ascended to 
the summit of the eminence, and clamber- 
ing through a gap in the walls, over loose 
masses of stone, imbedded in cement, we gazed 
over a hollow valley, within which lay ex- 
tended the solitary ruins of the once populous 
and flourishing city. On an eminence above 



222 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

towered the tottering walls of a ruined monas- 
tery, and around, in every direction, extended 
a succession of bare, arid sand-hills, bordered 
by a low and desolate sandy coast. 

" Descending into the hollow, we wandered 
amid masses of masonry, heaps of stone, and 
mounds of rubbish. Here and there we per- 
ceived the mutilated shafts of gray granite 
columns, and some broken pillars of coarse mar- 
ble. The foundations of walls and the ruins 
of houses encumbered the ground at every 
step, and the remains of gardens and of 
courts, once attached to the domestic habita- 
tions of the city, were plainly distinguishable 
on all sides. These confused heaps present a 
scene of thorough desolation ; not a single 
column is erect, nor a single shaft entire. 

" We wandered down to the sea-shore, and 
crossed over the shattered masses of wall 
which once formed the defences of the tow r n 
toward the sea. Askelon was the principal 
maritime town of the Philistines ; now not the 
vestige of a port is traceable. A wild, soli- 
tary, naked coast stretches far away on either 
side, and no safe refuge for ships is now any- 
where to be distinguished. 

" The ruined monastery before alluded to 
was the last inhabited dwelling on the spot. A 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 223 

few monks here sheltered themselves amid 
the ruins of the once populous city, and for a 
long time struggled against the genius of deso- 
lation which brooded over the place ; they cul- 
tivated a little garden, and subsisted on the 
charity of distant brethren. Their resources, 
however, at last diminished— the support from 
abroad was withdrawn — the building was 
gradually allowed to go to ruin ; some of 
the monks sought refuge in other establish- 
ments, and the last of the inhabitants of As- 
kelon was laid in his sandy grave many a year 
back. Upon this forlorn spot, where once was 
congregated a large population, amLwhere once 
stood the proudest of the five satrapies of the 
Philistines, there is now not a single inhabit- 
ant. There is not a dwelling near the place, 
and the surrounding country is deserted and 
uncultivated. Askelon is become ' a desola- 
tion,' it is ' not inhabited.' " 

"Baldness is come upon Gaza ; Askelon is cut 
off with the remnant of their valley." — The pro- 
phet in this passage evidently alludes to the 
valley lying between Gaza and Askelon. San- 
dys gives an interesting description of the na- 
tural beauty and fertility, and at the same 
time neglected and desolate condition of this 



224 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

tract of country. He says, — " Wee past this 
day through the most pregnant and pleasant 
valley that ever eye beheld. On the right hand 
a ridge of high mountaines, whereon stands He- 
bron ; on the left hand the Mediterranean Sea, 
bordered with continuous hills, beset with 
varietie of fruits ; as they are for the most 
part of this daye's iourney. The champaine 
betweene, about twentie miles over full of 
rlowry hils ascending leasurely, and not much 
surmounting their ranker valleys, with groves 
of olives and other fruits dispersedly adorned. 
Yet is this wealthy bottome (as are all the 
rest) for trus most part uninhabited but only 
for a few small and contemptible villages, 
possessed by barbarous Moores, [Arabs,] who 
till no more than will serve to feed them : — the 
grasse waste-high, unmowed, uneaten, and use- 
lessly withering." 

" I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod. — 
Ashdod shall be driven out at noon-day." — This 
town was situated between Ekron on the north 
and Askelon on the south. It was nearer to 
the sea than the former, but not so near as 
the latter, which seems to have been the only 
one of the five that stood close out to the shore. 
It was anciently a place of much importance, 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 225 

and was surrounded by a wall of great strength. 
It is distinguished for having sustained the 
longest siege recorded in history, having been 
besieged for twenty-nine years by Psammitti- 
cus, king of Egypt. In the time of the Mac- 
cabees, it was taken and destroyed by the 
Jews. It was probably to this event that the 
preceding prophecies referred. Under the Ro- 
mans, Ashdod was rebuilt, and it is mentioned 
in Acts \ 7 iii, 40, under the name of Azotus. In 
the early ages of Christianity it became the 
seat of a bishopric, and it continued to be a 
fair village till the time of Jerome. It is now 
an inconsiderable place. Volney says, — 
" Leaving Yabna, we met successively with 
various ruins, the most considerable of which 
are at Ezdoud, the ancient Azotus, famous at 
present for its scorpions. This town, so pow- 
erful under the Philistines, affords no proof of 
its ancient importance." 

"J will turn my hand against Ekron. — Ekron 
shall be rooted up." — This was the most north- 
ern of the Philistine cities. " In the time of 
Jerome it was a large village, and was then 
called Accaron. In the time of Breidenbachius, 
whose Travels were first published in 1486, it 
had declined from a village to a solitary cot- 
15 



226 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

tage or hut, which still bore the ancient name. 
No traces of the name or site can now be dis- 
covered." — Pict. Bible. Dr. Robinson found, 
near the spot where Ekron must have been 
situated, a village named Akir, which, he says, 
"there seems no reason to doubt, answers to 
the ancient Ekron. It is of considerable size ; 
but we could perceive nothing to distinguish it 
from other modern villages of the plain. Like 
them it is built of unburnt bricks or mud ; and 
exhibits to the eye of the traveller no marks of 
antiquity." Whether this village occupies the 
site of the ancient city of the Philistines or not, 
the integrity of the prophecy is not in any way 
affected by it, Akir being only a modern village, 
exhibiting no marks of antiquity. The Ekron of 
Scripture is " rooted up: " so completely has the 
prediction been accomplished, that not a ruin is 
left to designate the spot on which the city stood. 

Thus have the prophecies respecting Philistia 
been accomplished: the people have perished, 
and the land is mostly desolate; ancient Gaza 
has been demolished and forsaken ; Askelon 
is a desolation, and its ruins do not shelter a 
single inhabitant ; the inhabitants are cut off 
from Ashdod ; and Ekron is rooted up. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 227 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PROPHECIES CONCERNING NINEVEH. 

Obscurity of its early history— Its situation, and antiquity — 
Its extraordinary dimensions — Diodorus's account of it — Was not 
a compactly built city — Probable number of inhabitants — Nineveh 
a commercial city — Was an exceedingly wicked as well as great 
city — Jonah's mission — Repentance of the Ninevites — Their 
relapse — Nahum foretels the fall of Nineveh — Remarks on Na- 
hum's prophecies— Substance of his predictions — Zephaniah's 
prophecy respecting Nineveh — Prosperous state of Nineveh 
when these prophecies were uttered — Nineveh taken by the 
Medes and Babylonians — Particulars of its siege and capture, 
showing the literal fulfilments of the prophecies — The final and 
utter desolation of Nineveh foretold — Accomplishment of this 
prediction — Notices respecting the site of Nineveh, from several 
modern travellers — Conclusion. 

" Of the early history of the great Assyrian 
empire, little is with certainty known. The 
bewildering antiquity of its origin — the im- 
mensity of its dominion — the splendour and 
gigantic bulk of its cities — and the utter deso- 
lation that, for long ages, has overspread them, 
invest the subject with the character of a mag- 
nificent dream. Yet that such cities as Nine- 
veh and Babylon have existed, and with a 
grandeur perhaps never since equalled, we can- 
not but believe. The ashes still remain to 
prove that the Titanic forms have been ;" and 
their extent and splendour are recorded on the 
page of both sacred and profane history. 



228 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

" There are few ruins of ancient cities 
around which lingers a stronger interest than 
those of Nineveh. It was one of the first 
founded cities in the world. Its reputed great- 
ness has almost the air of an eastern fable. It 
was the theatre of an extraordinary mission of 
one Hebrew prophet, while another foretold its 
desolation in words of brief but terrible im- 
port/'* 

Nineveh was the capital of the first Assy- 
rian empire, and stood on the bank of the river 
Tigris. There is some uncertainty as to its 
exact site, but the testimony of most ancient 
writers concurs with the local traditions to fix 
it on the eastern bank of the river, opposite the 
modern town of Mosul, where there are seve- 
ral extensive mounds of decayed ruins, and 
where the little village of Nunia [Nineveh] still 
preserves the remembrance of its name. It 
was one of the most ancient cities of the 
world, having been founded shortly after the 
deluge, by Asshur the son of Shem,f Gen. x ? 
1 1 , but it did not rise to any considerable 
greatness until many centuries after, when, 
about the year 1230 B. C. it w T as enlarged ty 

* American Biblical Repository, vol. ix. 
t From him also the country derived its name ; Asshur 
being the Hebrew word for Assyria. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 229 

Ninus, its second founder, and became the great- 
est city in the world, and mistress of the East. 

In Jonah iii, 3, it is said that " Nineveh was 
an exceeding great city of three days' journey;" 
that is, the circuit, or circumference, of the city 
was three days' journey : and with this agree 
the accounts of ancient writers, who estimate 
the circuit of Nineveh at four hundred and 
eighty stadia,* which will make three days' 
journey, one hundred and fifty stadia being, ac- 
cording to Herodotus, the common computa- 
tion of a day's journey for a foot traveller. In 
form, the city was not square, but oblong ; its 
greatest length extended along the bank of the 
Tigris, while its breadth reached from the 
river to the eastern hills. 

As none of the ancient historians who men- 
tion Nineveh lived till after its destruction, 
their accounts, derived from old records and 
reports, are necessarily brief and imperfect. 
The best account is that given by Diodorus, 
who states, that Ninus, one of the kings of As- 
syria, having surpassed all his predecessors in 

* If Roman stadia are here meant, it would make the 
circumference of Nineveh to be sixty miles ; but if, as is 
more probable, Greek stadia are intended, then it would 
be only forty-eight miles ; the Roman stadium being one- 
eighth, and the Greek one-tenth of a mile. 



230 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

the glory and success of his arms, resolved to 
build a city of such state and grandeur, that it 
should not only be the greatest then in the 
world, but such as no king after him should 
easily be able to exceed. Accordingly, having 
brought a vast number of his forces together, and 
provided every thing which his design required, 
he built near the Tigris a city very famous for 
its walls and fortifications. Its length was 
one hundred and fifty stadia, its breadth ninety, 
and its circumference four hundred and eighty.* 
It was surrounded by a wall one hundred feet 
high, and so thick that three chariots could 
easily be driven upon it abreast ; and the wall 
was fortified and adorned with fifteen hundred 
towers, each of which was two hundred feet 
high. Diodorus adds, that the founder was not 
deceived in his expectations, for no one ever 
after built a city equal to it in the extent of its 
circumference, and the magnificence of its 
walls, t 

* This statement of the form and dimensions of ancient 
Nineveh corresponds with the local features of its sup- 
posed site ; for though it might have stretched its front 
along the river to any extent, yet its breadth was limited 
to about ten miles, that being the width of the plain be- 
tween the river and the range of hills which formed the 
eastern boundary of the city. 

t Pictorial Bible. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 231 

We must not, however, suppose that the 
whole of the vast enclosure of Nineveh was 
covered with compact streets and buildings; 
it doubtless, like ancient Babylon, and like 
many large Oriental cities of the present day, 
contained extensive plantations and gardens, 
as well as pastures for the " much cattle" that 
were in the city. Jonah iv, 11. "The extent 
of Eastern cities, therefore, forms but little 
guide in estimating the number of their inha- 
bitants. The compact, close streets of our 
cities, present a striking contrast to the scat- 
tered mansions of the East, surrounded with 
their extensive courts and gardens, occupying 
at least an even portion of the whole area. An 
equal space, therefore, was far from containing 
an equal number of men as with us."* 

Of the population of Nineveh we have no 
account, except the statement in Jonah iv, 11, 
that it contained " more than sixscore thou- 
sand persons that could not discern their right 
hand from their left." By this form of expres- 
sion, young children are commonly understood, 
and as these are generally reckoned to form 
one-fifth of the inhabitants of any place, the 
population of Nineveh may be estimated to 
have been upward of six hundred thousand 
* Heeren's Historical Researches, 



232 SCRIPTURE PfcOPHEi 

persons. This calculation exhibits the force 
of the remarks made in the preceding para- 
graph ; for the city of London, which does not 
occupy more than one -fourth of the ground 
which Nineveh did, contains a population of 
two millions. 

Nineveh was situated very commodiously for 
the purposes of commerce. The river Tigris 
opened a ready communication with the Per- 
sian Gulf, Southern Asia, and the shores of the 
Indian Ocean. Of these advantages the Nine- 
vites seem to have duly availed themselves, for 
they are said by Nahum to have " multiplied 
their merchants as the stars of heaven," Na- 
hum iii, 16. 

But as in other great and rich cities, so in 
Nineveh, there prevailed extreme depravity of 
morals. So great was the wickedness of its 
inhabitants, that Jehovah commissioned the pro- 
phet Jonah to " go to Nineveh and cry against 
it," Jonah i, 2. The word of the Lord came 
unto him, saying, " Arise, go up to Nineveh, 
that great city, and preach unto it the preach- 
ing that I bid thee." So Jonah arose, and went 
to Nineveh, and proclaimed through the streets 
of the city, " Yet forty days and Nineveh shall 
be overthrown!" Jonah iii, 1-4. The threat- 
ened overthrow was, however, averted by the 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 233 

general repentance and humiliation of the peo- 
ple. The king, as soon as he heard the mes- 
sage of the prophet, arose from his throne, laid 
aside his robes, and covered himself with sack- 
cloth. He also proclaimed a fast ; and the 
people put on sackcloth, and cried mightily to 
God, and turned from their evil ways ; for they 
said, " Who can tell if God will turn away 
from his fierce anger, that we perish not V 
" And God saw their works, that they turned 
from their evil way ; and God repented of the 
evil that h.q had said he would do unto them ; 
and he did it not," Jonah iii, 5-10. 

The repentance of the Ninevites appears, 
however, to have been more deep than lasting. 
Their sudden reformation proved to be of no 
long continuance ; " like the morning cloud, 
and the early dew," it soon passed away, and 
they turned again to their folly, increasing in 
wickedness until their iniquities again aroused 
the righteous anger of an offended God. Ac- 
cordingly, some years after, we find the pro- 
phet Nahum foretelling the final and utter 
destruction of Nineveh; indeed, his whole pro- 
phecy relates to the overthrow of that city and 
the proud empire of which it was capital. 

Speaking of Nahum, Bishop Lowth remarks, 
■ — " None of the minor prophets are equal to 



234 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

him in boldness, ardour, and sublimity. His 
prophecy forms a regular and perfect poem ; 
the exordium is not merely magnificent, it is 
truly majestic ; the preparation for the destruc- 
tion of Nineveh, and the description of its 
downfall and desolation, are expressed in the 
most vivid colours, and are bold and luminous 
in the highest degree."* Dr. A. Clarke ob- 
serves, that his description is " so lively and 
pathetic, that he seems to have been upon the 
spot to declare to the Ninevites the ruin of their 
city." The following passages embrace the 
substance of his predictions : — 

"THE BURDEN OF NINEVEH. 

" God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth ; 
The Lord revengeth, and is furious ; 
The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries ; 
And he reserveth wrath for his enemies. 
The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, 
And will not at ail acquit the wicked : 
The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and the storm, 
And the clouds are the dust of his feet. 
Who can stand before his indignation! 
And who can abide the fierceness of his anger 1 

" The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble ; 
And he knoweth them that trust in him. 
But with an overrunning flood 
He will make an utter end of the place thereof, 

* Lectures on Hebrew Poetry. 



SCIUPTIJIIE PROPHECY. 235 

And darkness shall pursue his enemies. 

What do ye imagine against the Lord ? 

He will make an utter end : 

Affliction shall not rise up the second time. 

For while they be folden together as thorns, 

And while they are drunken as drunkards, 

They shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." 

Chap, i, 1-3, 6-10. 
" The gates of the river shall be opened, 

And the palace shall be dissolved. 

Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold ; 

For there is none end of the store and glory 

Out of all the pleasant furniture. 

She is empty, void, and waste ; 

And the heart melteth, and the knees smite together." 

Chap, ii, 6, 9, 10. 
' Wo to the bloody city ! 

It is all full of lies and robbery. 

Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts ; 

And I will show the nations thy nakedness, 

And the kingdoms thy shame. 

And it shall come to pass 

That all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, 

And say, ' Nineveh is laid waste.' " — Chap, iii, 1, 5, 6. 

These predictions were delivered soon after 
the carrying away of the ten tribes by the 
Assyrians, and about the time of Sennacherib's 
invasion of Judah, in the reign of Hezekiah. At 
a subsequent period, during the reign of Josiah, 
the fall of Nineveh was foretold by the prophet 
Zephaniah, in the following words : — 



236 SCRIPXUBU PROPHECY. 

" The Lord will stretch out his hand against the north, 
And destroy Assyria ; 
And will make Nineveh a desolation, 
And dry like a wilderness. 
And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, 
All the beasts of the nations. 
This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, 
That said in her heart, ' I am, and there is none beside 

me.' 
How is she become a desolation, 
A place for beasts to lie down in ! 
Every one that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his 

hand." Zeph. ii, 13-15. 

When these prophets predicted the desola- 
tion of Nineveh, that city was in the height of 
its glory, and its king the mightiest monarch of 
his day ; 

" For all the East was his, 
From Indus westward to the Hellespont, — 
From north of Caspian to the Persian Gulf, 
A host of nations, whom no tongue could sum, 
All called Assyria lord ; and year by year, 
To giant Nineveh new warriors sent 
To guard her monarch's state, and grace his throne." 
Atherstone's Fall of Nineveh. 

The destruction of Nineveh was accomplish- 
ed by the confederate forces of the Medes and 
Babylonians ; but there is considerable discre- 
pancy in the accounts of ancient writers, as to 
the time when, and the principal agents by 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 237 

whom it was effected. " In the circumstances 
of the great event, however, these writers sub- 
stantially agree with one another, and with the 
inspired writers ; and as the circumstances 
alone are mentioned by the latter, and as cir- 
cumstantial corroborations are of the most in- 
terest and importance, we shall confine our 
notices to them. We shall follow the account 
of Diodorus, which is not only the most com- 
plete and connected which remains to us, but 
is proved to be generally accurate by the re- 
markable illustration which it affords to, and 
receives from, the prophecies of Scripture."* 

It was foretold by the prophet, that a great 
destruction should befall the Assyrians while 
they w r ere in a state of drunkenness. " While 
they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be de- 
voured as stubble fully dry.' 1 — On the advance 
of the allied forces of the Medes and Babylo- 
nians, the king of Assyria marched against 
them, and defeated them in three successive 
battles. Elated with these victories, the As- 
syrians abandoned themselves to revelry and 
feasting. The invaders, "being informed, by 
some deserters, of the negligence and drunken- 
ness in the enemy's camp, assaulted them un- 
* Pictorial Bible. 



238 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

expectedly by night, and falling orderly on them 
disorderly, and prepared on them unprepared, 
easily made themselves masters of the camp, 
slew many of the soldiers, and drove the rest 
into the city." 

" Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria" 
Nahum iii, 18. — These words plainly intimate 
that the iVssyrians should, in the day of their 
calamity, be deserted by those upon whom they 
relied for assistance. And such was the fact. 
The Assyrians despatched messengers to the 
various tributary provinces, calling upon them 
for succour ; but they, instead of rendering any 
aid, either continued in a state of inactivity, or 
went over to the enemy. Even the Bactrians, 
who had actually marched with a large army to 
their assistance, before they reached Nineveh, 
were induced to renounce their allegiance and 
join the invaders. 

The Assyrians being now shut up within 
the walls of the city, took the most active mea- 
sures for their defence. The city was well 
stored with provisions, and the strong and lofty 
walls seemed to defy any force which the be- 
siegers could bring against them. Such were 
the strength and resources of the place, that 
nothing of any consequence was effected by 
the besiegers for two years. But the end came 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 239 

at last, and in the manner which the prophet 
had foretold. 

" With an overrunning flood will he make an 
utter end of the place thereof. — The gates of the 
river shall be opened. 11 — These passages clearly 
indicate the agency of an inundation in effect- 
ing the overthrow of the city. And this, ac- 
cording to Diodorus, was the case. He says, 
— " There was an old tradition, that Nineveh 
could not be taken unless the river first be- 
came an enemy to the city. In the third 
year of the siege, the river, being swollen by 
continual rains, overflowed part of the city, and 
threw down twenty stadia of the wall. The 
king, then imagining that the oracle was ac- 
complished, and that the river was now mani- 
festly become an enemy to the city, cast aside 
all hope of safety ; and to avoid falling into the 
hands of the enemy, he built a large funeral 
pile in the palace, and having collected his gold 
and silver, and royal vestments, together with 
all his household, placed himself with them in 
an apartment built in the midst of the pile, and 
burned them, himself, and the palace together. 
When the besiegers heard of the death of the 
king, they entered in by the breach which the 
waters had made, and took the city." Thus 



240 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

was the prophecy of Nahum literally fulfilled ; 
the gates of the river were opened, and the palace 
was dissolved, or burned. It is worthy of re- 
mark, that the agency of fire, as well as water, 
in the destruction of Nineveh, was also foretold 
by the prophet. Nahum iii, 13, 15. 

It was predicted that the besiegers would 
find much spoil when they took the city. — 
" Take ye the spoil of silver, and the spoil of gold; 
for there is none end of the store," &c. — Accord- 
ingly Diodorus describes the conquerors of 
Nineveh as being greatly enriched by the booty 
which they found there ; many talents of gold 
and silver* were collected from the ashes of 
the funeral pile, and the rubbish of the burned 
palace of the Assyrian king. 

The entire destruction, and perpetual deso- 
lation of Nineveh, were also foretold. — " The 
Lord icill make Nineveh a desolation, a place for 
beasts to lie down in. — He will make an utter end : 
affliction shall not rise up a second time" — Nine- 
veh, after its capture, went rapidly to ruin, and 
its decay was doubtless hastened by the en- 
largement and beautif}'ing of Babylon, and the 

*A talent of silver is worth about $1,700, a talent of 
gold about $37,000. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 241 

removal of the seat of empire to that city. The 
most ancient of the Greek writers who mention 
Nineveh, speak of it as a place that had long 
been desolate. Lucian, who lived and wrote 
in the second century after Christ, says, — 
" Nineveh is so utterly destroyed, that no ves- 
tige of it remains, nor is it easy to tell the spot 
where it formerly stood. In the year 637, the 
emperor Heraclius defeated the Persians in a 
great action fought on the convenient battle- 
field offered by the vacant site of Nineveh."* 
Haitho, the Armenian, in 1300, says, — "This 
city is totally ruined." " Master John Cart- 
wright," who was there in the latter part of 
the sixteenth century, after giving a summary 
of the ancient accounts of the great Nineveh, 
adds, — " Now it is destroyed, as God foretold it 
should bee by the Chaldeans, being nothing else 
than a sepulchre of herselfe." In a later age 
(1657) The venot remarks, — "This city stood on 
the east side of the river, where-are to be seen 
some of its ruins of great extent even to this 
day." Tavernier states, that " the ancient 
city of Nineveh is now a heap of rubbish orfiy, 
for a league along the river, full of vaults and 
caverns." 

Niebuhr has the following remarks, — " As 

* Gibbon, chap. G. 
16 



242 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

one comes to Mosul, in this direction, he will 
pass through Nineveh. I was not aware that 
I was passing over so remarkable a spot, till I 
was near the river. Here they pointed out to 
me a village on a large hill, which was called 
Nunia, and a mosque in which (it is said) the 
prophet Jonah lies buried. Another hill on 
this ground was called Kalla Nunia, or the 
* Castle of Nineveh.' — While I was at Mosul, 
the walls of Nineveh were pointed out to 
me. These I had not before observed in 
my tour thither, but took them for a part of 
the hill." 

All that is now to be seen in this spot are 
numerous mounds,* supposed to consist of ruins, 
but which are covered with earth, and grown 
over with grass. " It is not easy," observes Mr. 
Rich, " to say precisely what are ruins and 
what are not ; what is art converted by the 

* Mr. Buckingham observes, that " these mounds and 
smaller heaps of ruins are scattered widely over the plain, 
sufficient to prove that the site of the original city occu- 
pied a vast extent, notwithstanding that some of the latest 
visiters to this place have thought that the remains were 
connned to the few mounds m the centre only." He also 
remarks, that the distance to which the mounds extend, left 
no doubt in his mind that the dimensions of Nineveh were 
fully equal to the accounts given of it by ancient geogra- 
phers and historians 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 243 

lapse of ages into the semblance of nature, and 
what is merely nature broken by the hand of time 
in the ruins approaching in their appearance to 
those of art."* Such an " utter end" has been 
made of Nineveh, that even its very ruins may 
be said to have been long ago ruined and de- 
stroyed. 

" Fallen is the mighty city ! fallen, fallen ! 
Fallen is great Nineveh, — the city of old,— 
The mighty city, queen of all the earth ! 
The day of her exulting is gone by ! 
Her throne is in the dust ! her sceptre broke ! 
Her walls are gone ! her palaces dissolved ! 
The desert is around her, and within. — 
Like shadows has the mighty passed away ! 
And scarce remains a solitary stone 
To say, ' Here stood imperial Nineveh !' " 

Atherstone. 

Her " nobles dwell in the dust," and the 
busy crowds who once thronged her streets are 
nowhere to be found. Her magnificent walls, 
her lofty towers, her gorgeous temples, and 
her splendid palaces, which, from the massive- 
ness of their structure, seemed to claim com- 

* " From some of these mounds, large stones, frequently 
with bitumen adhering to them, are dug out. In gene- 
ral, I think there were but very few bricks used in the 
building of Nineveh. " — Rich. The ruins of Babylon, on 
the contrary, are composed entirely of bricks. 



244 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

panionship with eternity, have passed away, 
leaving so little trace of their existence, that on 
the spot where they once stood, 

" The distant traveller, wearied with long search, 
Leans on his staff, and wonders where had been 
The city of old Ninus." 

" This is the rejoicing city that dwelt care- 
lessly, that said in her heart, ' I am, and there 
is none beside me.' How is she become a 
desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in ! 
Every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and 
wag his hand,' Zeph. ii, 15. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 245 

CHAPTER IX. 

PROPHECIES CONCERNING BABYLON. 

Antiquity of Babylon — Description of Babylonia — Its fertility — 
Its natural advantages — Commerce of Babylon — Its manufac- 
tures — Early history — Prosperity under Nebuchadnezzar — De- 
scription of the ancient city — Palace, hanging-gardens, and 
temple of Belus— Prophecies concerning it — It is besieged, as 
was foretold, by Cyrus — His army composed of " many nations 
from the north country" — The city is taken by stratagem during 
the time of a feast— Various prophecies fulfilled in the circum- 
stances of its capture — It is taken a second time, by Darius, who 
breaks down its walls — Its temples plundered and demolished by 
Xerxes — Alexander proposes to restore Babylon, but is cut off by 
death — It becomes desolate and forsaken — Its walls are utterly 
destroyed — Its ruins, deserted by man, are tenanted by wild 
beasts— Its site uncultivated — The land of Chaldea now mostly 
a barren waste — Babylon become " a desolation and an astonish- 
ment" — Description of its principal ruins — The Amram Hill — The 
Kasr — The Mujelibe — The Birs Nimrood — Reflections. 

After the fall of Nineveh, Babylon suc- 
ceeded to the empire of the East, and be- 
came the metropolis of the second Assyrian 
kingdom. 

In point of antiquity, Babylon was superior 
to Nineveh. Its foundation must be carried 
back to the period (supposed to have been 
about two hundred years after the flood) when 
the inhabitants of the earth, probably under the 
conduct of Nimrod, (Gen. x, 10,) "journeyed 
from the east to a plain in the land of Shinar, ,, 



246 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

and there commenced the erection of the oldest 
city of which history has preserved any re- 
cord. Gen. xi, 4-9: "And they said, 'Go to, 
let us build us a city, and a tower whose top 
may reach unto heaven ; and let us make us a 
name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the 
face of the whole earth.' And the Lord came 
down to see the city and the tower, which the 
children of men builded. And the Lord said, 
1 Behold, the people is one, and they have all 
one language ; and this they begin to do : and 
now nothing will be restrained from them, 
which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us 
go down, and there confound their language, 
that they may not understand one another's 
speech.' So the Lord scattered them abroad 
from thence upon the face of all the earth : and 
they left off to build the city. Therefore is the 
name of it called Babel," which signifies "con- 
fusion ;" and hence its future name, Babel On, 
that is, " The city of Babel." 

The land of Babylonia or Chaldea, of which 
Babylon was the capital, was situated between 
the Euphrates and the Tigris, the former 
bounding it on the west, the latter on the east. 
The country enclosed by these two rivers was 
one vast, uninterrupted level, indebted to them 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 247 

for its fertility.* It was everywhere inter- 
sected by canals of various sizes ; some, run- 
ning across the country from one river to the 
other, answered the double purpose of a com- 
munication between them, and of irrigating the 
soil ; while others were formed solely for the 
latter object. On the banks of these canals 
were innumerable machines for raising the 
water, and spreading it over the soil. This 
constant irrigation was rendered necessary by 
the heat, and almost constant dryness of the 
climate, as it seldom rains in that country. 
The fertility of this region was almost without 
parallel. The labours of the husbandman 
were rewarded with such a luxuriant crop, 
that Herodotus, fearful of being suspected of 
exaggeration, hesitated to state the full truth. 
He says, — " Of all the countries that I have 
visited, this is by far the most fruitful in corn. 
The soil is so well adapted to its growth, that 
it commonly yields two hundred fold, and in 
seasons remarkably favourable it sometimes 

* The importance of these rivers to the Babylonians, 
and the value of their waters in irrigating the land* is 
thus spoken of in Ezekiel xxxi, 4 : " The waters made 
him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers 
running round about his plants, and sent out her little 
rivers to all the trees of the field." 



248 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

amounts to three hundred. The leaves both 
of the wheat and the barley in this region are 
four fingers broad. But the immense height 
to which the millet and sesame [Indian corn] 
stalks grow, although I have witnessed it my- 
self, I dare not mention, lest those who have 
not travelled in this region should disbelieve 
my report.'' This fertility with respect to corn 
was however somewhat counterbalanced by a 
dearth of timber. The fig tree, the olive, and 
the vine were not found there at all ; and the 
want of them was but indifferently supplied 
by an abundance of date or palm trees, with 
which Babylonia was completely covered, and 
which still grow in large quantities on the 
banks of the Euphrates. Of all other large 
trees Babylonia was entirely destitute. 

Like most level countries, Babylonia was as 
destitute of stone as of wood. The want of 
these important building materials was, how- 
ever, compensated by an inexhaustible sup- 
ply of superior clay, which, when dried in the 
sun or burned in the fire, furnished bricks so 
durable, that the remains of ancient buildings, 
which have been thrown down for centuries, 
have withstood the effects of the atmosphere 
to the present day. 

The natural advantages of this region, both 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 249 

in a political and commercial point of view, 
were very great. A single glance at the map 
of Asia is sufficient to show that somewhere in 
the vicinity of Babylon is the natural seat of em- 
pire in the East ; and that few places were more 
eligibly situated for a vast trade, as it was con- 
ducted before the discovery of a passage to 
India by way of the Cape of Good Hope. 
Amid all the changes of the Eastern world, 
empire and commerce seem to have been 
ever disposed to take up their abode on the 
banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. Notwith- 
standing the numerous revolutions it under- 
went, and the devastations of the barbarous 
conquerors who invaded it, this region pre- 
sented an astonishing succession of flourish- 
ing cities, which, like the phoenix, seemed to 
arise from the ashes and ruins of their own de- 
struction. Thus in the earliest periods of his- 
tory we find Nineveh on the Tigris, and Baby- 
lon on the Euphrates, mighty and magnificent 
commercial cities, and the proud capitals of 
vast empires. When these fell, Seleucia arose 
on the banks of the Tigris, as if prosperity and 
power were unwilling to forsake the fertile 
plains watered by these rivers. Ere Seleucia 
fell, it was eclipsed by Ctesiphon, the capital of 
the Parthian empire. When both these were 



250 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

destroyed by the conquering Saracens, the 
royal cities of Bagdad and Ormus arose in their 
place, and became like them the home of the 
learned and the resort of the merchant ; and 
the last glimmer, as it were, of the ancient 
splendour of Babylon seems still to hover over 
the half-ruined Bussora.* 

The fact that there was in this region such 
a succession of celebrated cities, demonstrates 
that it possessed some important commercial 
advantages. " Nature herself seems to have 
formed it for the great seat of the international 
commerce of Asia. Situated between the In- 
dus and the Mediterranean, it was the natural 
staple of such precious wares of the East as 
were esteemed in the West. Its proximity 
to the Persian Gulf, the great highway of 
trade, which nature seems to have prepared for 
the admission of the sea-faring nations of the 
Indian seas into the midst of Asia, must be 
reckoned as another advantage, especially 
when taken in connection with its vicinity to 
the two great rivers, the continuation, as it 
were, of this highway, and opening a commu- 
nication with the nations dwelling on the Eux- 
ine and Caspian Seas. Thus favoured by 
nature, this country necessarily became the 
* Heeren's Researches — Barnes on Isaiah. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 251 

central point, where the merchants of nearly all 
the nations of the civilized world assembled ; and 
such, we are informed by history, it remained, 
so long as the international commerce of Asia 
flourished. Neither the devastating sword of 
conquering nations, nor the heavy yoke of 
Asiatic despotism, could tarnish, though for a 
while they might dim its splendour. It was 
only when Europeans found a new path to In- 
dia, across the ocean, and converted the great 
commerce of the world from a land trade to a 
sea trade, that the royal city on the banks of 
the Tigris and Euphrates began to decline." — 
Heeren. 

From the foregoing particulars it will at once 
be seen that Babylon owed its greatness not 
less to its commercial advantages than to its 
conquests, and its being the capital of a vast 
empire. From both sacred and profane his- 
tory we learn that it was early distinguished 
for its commerce and manufactures. In Eze- 
kiel xvii, 4, it is called " a land of traffic, — a 
city of merchants." The merchandise of the 
East, we are told by Strabo and Herodotus, 
passed through Babylon, and thence to Asia 
Minor. The merchants of Babylon were in 
communication with the surrounding countries, 
partly by caravans over land, and partly by sea 



252 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

through the Persian Gulf. Their possession of 
a maritime commerce may be inferred from 
that passage in Isaiah (xliii, 14) where the 
Chaldeans are spoken of as a people "whose 
cry [or exultation] is in their ships." " The 
accounts of ancient writers also concur in re- 
presenting Babylon as a city which received 
the merchandise of the south — Arabian and In- 
dian productions — by means of the Persian 
Gulf." — Heeren. The principal articles which 
they imported from these countries were gold 
and silver, precious stones, pearls, dyes, cin- 
namon, and other spicery, wood for building 
ships, and cotton. 

The productions of their own skill and in- 
dustry also formed a considerable item in the 
commerce of the Babylonians. " Carpets, one 
of the principal articles of luxury in the East, 
were nowhere so finely woven, and in such 
splendid colours, as at Babylon. Foreign na- 
tions made use of these carpets in the decora- 
tion of their harems and royal saloons. Among 
the Persians, not only the floors, but even the 
beds and sofas in the houses of the nobles were 
covered with these carpets. Babylonish gar- 
ments were not les3 esteemed. Josh, vii, 21. 
It appears that they were usually of cotton, 
and the most costly were so highly valued for 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 253 

their brilliancy of colour, and fineness of tex- 
ture, as to be compared to those of Media, and 
set apart for royal use. The superiority of 
Babylonish robes and carpets will not be a 
matter of surprise, when we consider how 
near Babylon was to Caramania on the one 
side, and to Arabia and Syria on the other, and 
that in these countries the finest wool and cot- 
ton were produced." — Heeren. 

The early history of Babylon is, like that of 
Nineveh, involved in considerable obscurity. 
In the accounts of its rise and growth, as given 
by heathen writers, the facts of its history are 
so mixed up with fabulous legends, that it is 
impossible to separate the one from the other ; 
and the sacred writers, after giving an account 
of its origin, in Genesis x and xi, make no fur- 
ther mention of it until the time of Hezekiah, 
when, as we are informed in 2 Kings xx, 12, 
" Berodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king 
of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Heze- 
kiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had 
been sick." Previous to this, Babylon, though 
a rich and powerful, was not an independent, 
city. Babylonia was a province of the great 
Assyrian empire, and the predecessors of Be- 
rodach-baladan were merely prefects or vice- 



254 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

roys of the kings of Nineveh. But about this 
time, the governors of Babylon and Media, 
probably taking advantage of a reverse of for- 
tune which had befallen Sennacherib, the As- 
syrian monarch, (2 Kings xix, 35, 36,) had 
asserted their independence, and were now in a 
state of rebellion. " Berodach had, therefore, 
the same political interests as Hezekiah, in op- 
position to the king of Assyria ; and it is not 
improbable that the embassy which he sent 
professedly to congratulate Hezekiah on his re- 
covery from his sickness, had for its real object 
the bringing of the king of Judah into an alli- 
ance against the common enemy."* 

The Babylonians were, however, again re- 
duced to subjection by Esarhaddon, the son of 
Sennacherib ; but they soon after revolted a 
second time, and with better success ; for they 
not only succeeded in effecting their independ- 
ence, but, from being the vassals, they soon be- 
came the rivals, and at length, in conjunction 
with the Medes, the destroyers of Nineveh. 

The most brilliant epoch in the history of 
Babylon was the period during which Nebu- 
chadnezzar filled the throne of the kingdom. 
This mighty monarch, having subdued nearlv 
all the surrounding countries, turned his atten- 
* Pictorial Bible. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 255 

tion to the aggrandizement of his metropolis, 
employing his vast resources in its extension 
and embellishment. It was during his long 
and prosperous reign, which lasted from the 
year 605 to 562 B. C, that Babylon acquired 
that extent and magnificence, and those stupen- 
dous works were completed, which rendered 
it the wonder and admiration of the ancient 
world. This we learn from Daniel iv, 30, and 
also from Berosus, a Chaldean historian, who. 
in a fragment of his works preserved by Jose- 
phus,* says, — " Nabuchodonosor adorned the 
temple of Belus, and the other temples, after an 
elegant manner, out of the spoils he had taken 
in war. He also rebuilt the old city, and add- 
ed another to it on the outside, and so far re- 
stored Babylon, that none who should besiege it 
afterward might have it in their power to divert 
the river, so as to facilitate an entrance into it ; 
and this he did by building three walls about 
the inner city, and three about the outer. Some 
of these walls he built of burned brick and bi- 
tumen, and some of brick only. **So when he 
had thus fortified the city with walls, and had 
adorned the gates magnificently, he added a 
new palace to that which his father had dwelt 
in, and that more eminent in its height, and in 
* Against Apion, book i, sec. 19. 



256 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

its great splendour. Now in this palace he 
erected very high walks, supported by stone 
pillars, and by planting what was called a pen- 
sile paradise, and replenishing it with all sorts 
of trees, he rendered the prospect an exact re- 
semblance of a mountainous country." 

It would occupy too much room to insert at 
length the descriptions of Babylon given by 
ancient writers ; we must therefore limit our- 
selves to the following brief particulars. 

Babylon was built in the form of a square, 
having four equal sides of one hundred and 
twenty stadia, or twelve miles each. It stood 
on the banks of the Euphrates, which ran 
through its midst, dividing it into two parts, of 
which that on the western side was the older, 
but that on the eastern the more magnificent. 

The city was surrounded by a wall forty- 
eight miles in circumference, and, according to 
Herodotus, eighty-seven feet in thickness, and 
three hundred and fifty high.* It was further 
defended by a wide and deep moat or ditch, 

* The prophet Jeremiah, in the following passages, al- 
ludes to the extraordinary dimensions of the wall of Baby- 
lon : — " Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and 
though she should fortify the height of her strength," &c. 
— " The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken," 
Jer. li, 53, 58. 



SCRIPTURE PR0PHECV. 257 

lined with brickwork, and filled with water, 
which went entirely around the city ; some idea 
of its capacity may be formed from the fact that 
the earth dug out of it furnished the bricks 
with which the wall was built. In the walls 
were one hundred gates, twenty-five on each 
side, which were all made of solid brass, and 
of prodigious size and strength. Between 
every two of these gates were three towers ten 
feet higher than the walls, and four more at the 
angles of the wall, and three more between 
each of these angles and the next gate on either 
side. These towers, however, were built only 
on three sides of the city, being omitted on one 
side where the morasses rendered the protec- 
tion which they offered unnecessary. From 
the twenty-five gates on each side of the city, 
were twenty-five streets one hundred and fifty 
feet in width, extending in straight lines to the 
corresponding gates on the opposite side, and 
dividing the city into six hundred and seventy- 
six squares, each of which was nearly two 
miles in circumference. Round these squares, 
facing the streets, stood the houses, all of 
which were three or four stories high. The 
ground in the interior of the squares was not 
built upon, but laid out in fields, gardens, and 
pleasure grourds. 

17 



258 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

That part of the river which ran through the 
city was faced with brick, and on each of its 
banks was a brick wall corresponding in height 
with that on the outside of the city. In each 
of these walls were twenty-five brazen gates, 
from which were steps leading down from the 
streets to the river, for the convenience of the 
inhabitants who passed and repassed in boats 
from one side of the city to the other. These 
gates were always open during the day, but 
closed at night. The communication between 
the two divisions of the city was further assist- 
ed by a bridge, thirty feet in width, which 
crossed the river near the centre. 

The most remarkable structures within the 
city were the palace, the hanging-gardens, and 
the temple. 

The palace, built by Nebuchadnezzar, stood 
on the eastern side of the river. With its 
parks and gardens it occupied an area of four 
and a half square miles, which was enclosed 
by a triple wall. Within this enclosure, and 
connected with the palace, were the cele- 
brated hanging-gardens. These embraced a 
square of four hundred feet on each side, (about 
three acres and a half,) and consisted of ter 
races supported by walls and piers, and rising 
one above another, till the highest was on a 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 259 

level with the summit of the walls. The as- 
cent from terrace to terrace was by steps ten 
feet wide. These terraces were covered with 
earth, and planted with various flowers, shrubs, 
and trees ; the soil being deep enough to give 
root even to large trees. Upon the uppermost 
of these terraces was a reservoir, supplied with 
water from the river, by means of an engine ; 
and from this reservoir the gardens on the 
other terraces were irrigated as occasion re- 
quired. This novel and extraordinary fabric 
was constructed by Nebuchadnezzar to gra- 
tify his wife, who was a native of Media, with 
something like a resemblance to the hills and 
woods of her native country. Its summit com- 
manded an extensive prospect of the wide 
plain of Shinar, and all the splendid monu- 
ments of the mighty city ; and it was probably 
from one of its lofty terraces that Nebuchad- 
nezzar, filled with pride and arrogance, was 
surveying the wonders of his " golden city," 
exclaiming, " Is not this great Babylon that I 
have built for the house of the kingdom by the 
might of my power, and for the honour of my 
majesty?" when suddenly the boastful monarch, 
because he gave not God the glory, was re- 
duced to the abject condition of a beast of 
the field, until he learned "that the Most 



260 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth 
it to whomsoever he will." Daniel iv, 29-37. 

But the great wonder of Babylon was the 
celebrated temple of Belus, the god of the Ba- 
bylonians. It consisted of an enclosure up 
ward of one thousand feet square, and was 
surrounded by a wall adorned with seve- 
ral gates of brass. In this area were se- 
veral sacred buildings ; but the most remark- 
able was a prodigious tower which stood in the 
centre. It was built in a pyramidal form, con- 
sisting of a succession of towers rising one 
above another, and gradually diminishing in 
size, till the whole had numbered eight. The 
base, or lower tower, Avas more than five hun- 
dred feet square, and the height of the whole 
was also upward of five hundred feet. It was 
one of the most stupendous edifices ever erected 
by man, exceeding in height, though smaller at 
the base, the highest of the Egyptian pyramids : 

" Above the walls high soaring it arose, 
And seem'd to prop the sky." 

The ascent to the top was by a path formed 
on the outside of the towers, and in the middle 
of the ascent was a resting-place provided with 
seats. On the summit of the highest tower was 
a magnificent temple, expressly sacred to Be- 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 261 

lus, furnished with, a splendid couch, near 
which was a table of gold ; but there was no 
statue, the god being supposed to inhabit it at 
will* 

The riches and splendour of this temple 
were immense. When it was plundered by 
Xerxes, the value of the golden images and 
sacred utensils which he took from it is said 
by Diodorus to have amounted to six thousand 
and thirty Babylonish talents, equal to one hun- 
dred millions of dollars. It was in this tem- 
ple that Nebuchadnezzar deposited the golden 
vessels which he took from the house of the 
Lord at Jerusalem, and which were after- 
ward restored to the Jews, on their return 
from the captivity. 2 Chron. xxxvi, 7 ; Ezra v, 
13,16. 

This celebrated tower is not supposed to 
have been entirely the work of Nebuchad- 
nezzar. The general opinion, which we see 
no reason to doubt, is, that the remains of the 
original tower of Babel formed the nucleus or 
body of it. It is probable that this unfinished 
edifice being too massive to be easily removed, 
Nebuchadnezzar took the idea of rendering 
this ruin the principal ornament of the city 
which it was his pride to embellish. What- 
* Herodotus. 



262 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

ever additions he made to it, there is no doubt 
that its original shape was preserved ; for not 
only would it have taken immense labour and 
expense to alter it, but the pyramidal form of 
the temple of Belus, as we have described it 
from the accounts of ancient writers, " is one 
which would hardly have been thought of in 
such comparatively late times as those of Ne- 
buchadnezzar, being in its simplicity and pro- 
portions characteristic not only of very ancient, 
but of the most ancient constructed masses 
which have been known to exist upon earth."* 

Of the other public works of the Babyloni- 
ans, the most remarkable, and at the same 
time the most useful, were the numerous large 
canals, and an immense artificial lake of almost 
incredible dimensions, which were excavated 
for the purpose of drawing off the waters of 
the Euphrates, when flooded by the melting of 
the snows on the mountains of Armenia. " Into 
this prodigious basin, the overflowings of the 
rivers were directed by the channel of the ca- 
nals, during the summer months of the year ; 
and the waters received there were suffered to 
flow out, as occasion required, for the purpose 
of irrigating the surrounding country." 

" Of the number of inhabitants which Baby- 
* Pictorial Bible. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 263 

Ion contained, ancient writers have left us no 
account ; and, as we observed in our account 
of Nineveh, the population of ancient cities is 
not to be estimated by the extent of ground 
which they occupy. The houses usually stand 
so much apart, and every respectable house 
is built with such large open courts, and there 
are often so many gardens and plantations, that 
Asiatic towns do not generally contain any thing 
near so large a population as towns of similar 
extent with us. How well these remarks will 
apply to Babylon, will be seen from the express 
testimony of an ancient writer. " The build- 
ings," says Quintus Cintius, " do not reach to the 
walls, but are at the distance of an acre from 
them. Neither is the whole city covered with 
houses, but only ninety stadia ; nor do the houses 
stand in rows by each other, but the intervals 
which separate them are sown and cultivated, 
that they may furnish subsistence in case of 
siege." Indeed, Babylon might rather be con- 
sidered as a kind of walled province than a 
city, in the modern acceptation of the term. 

The foregoing particulars will, it is hoped, 
have assisted the reader in forming some faint 
idea of the magnitude and magnificence of that 
mighty city, which was " the beauty of the 
Chaldees 1 excellency," and the wonder of the 



264 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

ancient world ; in whose courts and palaces 
Daniel, instructed by prophetic vision, unrolled 
the volume of futurity, and read the history of 
time to the consummation of all things ; whose 
streets were so often traversed by the exiles 
of Zion, when " the Lord in his anger cast 
down from heaven unto the earth the beauty 
of Israel ;" and whose glory, pride, and deso- 
lation are depicted by the Jewish prophets in 
some of the sublimest strains of Hebrew po- 
etry. 

The prophecies respecting Babylon are con- 
tained in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah. 
They extend through several chapters, but the 
following passages will be found to embrace 
their substance. In the extracts from Isaiah 
we have followed Bishop Lowth's translation : 

" The oracle concerning Babylon, which was re- 
vealed to Isaiah the son of Amoz. 

A sound of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great 

people ; 
A sound of the tumult of kingdoms, of nations gathered 

together ! 
Jehovah, God of hosts, mustereth the host for the battle. 
Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, inexorable ; 
Even indignation, and burning wrath : 
To make the land a desolation ; 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 



265 



And her sinners he shall destroy out of her. 

Behold, I raise up against them the Medes ; 

Who shall hold silver of no account ; 

And as for gold, they shall not delight in it. 

Their bows shall dash the young men ; 

And on the fruit of the womb they shall have no mercy ; 

Their eye shall have no pity, even on the children. 

And Babylon shall become, she that was the beauty of 

kingdoms, 
The glory of the pride of the Chaldees, 
As the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah by the hand 

of God. 
It shall not be inhabited for ever ; 
Neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to genera- 
tion : 
Neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there ; 
Neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. 
But there shall the wild beasts of the desert lodge ; 
And howling monsters shall fill their houses : 
And there shall the daughters of the ostrich dwell ; 
And there shall the satyrs hold their revels. 
And wolves shall howl to one another in their palaces ; 
And dragons in their voluptuous pavilions." 

Isa. xiii, 3, 4, 9, 17-22. 
" For I will rise up against them, saith Jehovah, God of 

hosts : 
And I will cut off from Babylon the name and the 

remnant ; 
And the son, and the son's son, saith Jehovah. 
And I will make it an inheritance for the porcupine, 

and pools of water ; 
And I will plunge it in the miry gulf of destruction, saith 

Jehovah, God of hosts." Isa. xiv, 22, 23. 



266 SCRIPTURE PR0PHECV. 

" Thus saith Jehovah, who establisheth the word of his 
servant ; 
And accomplisheth the counsel of his messengers : 
Who sayeth to the deep, ' Be thou wasted ; 
And I will make dry thy rivers :' 
Who sayeth unto Cyrus, ' Thou art my shepherd !' 
And he shall fulfil all my pleasure ! 
Thus saith Jehovah to his anointed : 
To Cyrus, whom I hold fast by the right hand : 
That I may subdue nations before him ; 
And ungird the loins of kings : 
That I may open before him the valves ; 
And the gates shall not be shut. 
I will go before thee ; 
And make the mountains level : 
The valves of brass I will break in sunder, 
And the bars of iron will I hew down. 
And I will give unto thee the treasures of darkness ; 
And the stores deep hidden in secret places.' " 

Isa. xliv, 26-28 : xlv, 1-3. 

In the following passage, the prophet pro- 
ceeds to assign the reasons why the judgments 
of God were denounced against the Babyloni- 
ans, viz., their self-sufficiency and pride, and 
the severity which they exercised towards the 
captive Israelites : — 

" I was angry with my people ; I profaned my heritage ; 
And I gave them up into thy hand : 
Thou didst not show mercy unto them ; 
Even upon the aged thou didst greatly aggravate the 
weight of thy yoke. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 267 

And thou saidst, ' I shall be a lady for ever :' 
Because thou didst not attentively consider these things ; 
Thou didst not think on what in the end was to befall 

thee. 
But hear thou this, O thou voluptuous, that sittest in 

security ; 
Thou sayest in thy heart, ' I am, and there is none else ; 
I shall not sit as a widow ; I shall not know the loss of 

children.' 
Yet these two things shall come upon thee in a moment ; 
In one day, loss of children and widowhood : 
On a sudden shall they come upon thee ; 
Notwithstanding the multitude of thy sorceries, and the 

great strength of thine enchantments. 
But thou didst trust in thy wickedness, and saidst, 

* None seeth me :' 
Thy wisdom and thy knowledge have perverted thy 

mind ; 
So that thou saidst in thy heart, ' I am, and there is 

none besides.' 
Therefore shall evil come upon thee, which thou shalt 

not know how to deprecate ; 
And mischief shall fall upon thee, which thou shalt not 

be able to expiate ; 
And trouble shall come upon thee suddenly, of which 

thou shalt have no apprehension." 

Isa. xlvii, 6-11. 

About one hundred and twenty years after 
the foregoing prophecies were delivered, the 
following predictions were uttered by the pro- 
phet Jeremiah: — 



268 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

"The word that the Lord spake against Babylon 

AND AGAINST THE LAND OF THE CHALDEES, BY JeRE* 
MIAH THE PROPHET. 

Declare ye among the nations, Babylon is taken, 

Bel is confounded, 

Merodach is broken in pieces. 

For, lo, I will cause to come up against Babylon, 

An assembly of great nations from the north country : 

And they shall set themselves in array against her : 

For she hath sinned against the Lord. 

Take vengeance upon her ; 

As she hath done, do unto her. 

Cut off the sower from Babylon, 

And him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest 

I have laid a snare for thee, 

And thou art also taken, O Babylon, 

And thou wast not aware. 

Cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly : 

Let nothing of her be left. 

The wild beasts of the desert, with the wild beasts of 
the islands, shall dwell there, 

And the owls shall dwell therein : 

And it shall no more be inhabited for ever ; 

Neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to genera- 
tion. 

Behold, a great people shall come from the north, and a 
great nation ; 

They shall hold the bow and the lance ; 

They are cruel, and will not show mercy. 

How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and 
broken ! 

How is Babylon become a desolation among nations l n 
Jer. 1. 1, 2, 9, 14, 15, 16, 24, 26, 39, 23. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 269 

** thou that dwellest upon many waters,* abundant in 

treasures, 
Thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetous- 

ness. 
Behold, I am against thee, destroying mountain ; 
And I will stretch out my hand upon thee, 
And roll thee down from the rocks, 
And will make thee a burnt mountain. 
Set ye up a standard in the land, 
Blow the trumpet among the nations, 
Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, 

Minni, and Ashchenaz ; 
Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the 

Medes. 
And the land shall tremble and sorrow : 
For ever} 7 purpose of the Lord shall be performed against 

Babylon, 
To make the land of Babylon a desolation, 
Without an inhabitant. 

The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, 
They have remained in their holds : 
Their might hath failed ; 
They became as women. 
One post shall run to meet another, 
And one messenger to meet another, 
To show the king of Babylon that the city is taken at 

one end. 
And I will dry up her sea, 

* The great river Euphrates, the neighbouring lakes and 
marshes, with the numerous canals intersecting the coun- 
try around Babylon, give a peculiar propriety to this allu- 
sion to its " many waters." 



270 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

And make her springs dry. 

And Babylon shall become heaps, 

A dwelling-place for dragons, 

An astonishment and a hissing, 

Without an inhabitant. 

In their heat I will make their feasts, 

And I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, 

And sleep a perpetual sleep, 

And not wake, saith the Lord. 

How is Babylon become an astonishment among the na- 

tions. 
Her cities are a desolation, 
A dry land, and a wilderness, 
A land wherein no man dwelleth. 
The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, 
And her high gates shall be burned with fire. 

" So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil 
that should come upon Babylon. And Jere- 
miah said to Seraiah, ' When thou comest to 
Babylon, and shalt see, and read all these 
words ; then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou hast 
spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none 
shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that 
it shall be desolate for ever. And when thou 
hast made an end of reading this book, thou 
shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the 
midst of Euphrates ; and thou shalt say, Thus 
shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the 
evil that I will bring upon her. 1 " Jer. li, 13, &c 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 271 

At the time when these prophecies were 
written Babylon was not a declining, but a 
growing city. Isaiah prophesied nearly a cen- 
tury before the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, when 
Babylon was just rising to distinction, every 
day augmenting its resources and enlarging its 
dominion ; and Jeremiah uttered his predic- 
tions shortly before it reached the utmost point 
of its prosperity, and when human foresight 
would rather have pronounced its increasing 
greatness than its utter ruin. Indeed, if there 
was ever a city whose strength and magnitude 
appeared to bid defiance to the attacks of ene- 
mies or the ravages of time, it was Babylon. 
Nothing could at that period have been con- 
ceived more improbable than that a city of such 
vast extent, massive fortifications, extensive 
commerce, and almost boundless dominion, 
should ever be totally abandoned, and reduced 
to utter desolation. 

But the broad walls and brazen gates of Ba- 
bylon could not preserve it from that righteous 
indignation which its abounding iniquities had 
provoked. In the midst of its prosperity, 
" perils and great warnings began darkly to 
environ it." Not only did the prophets thunder 
the judgment of God against it, but " porten- 
tous dreams also visited the sleep of its kings ; 



272 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

and lastly, a supernatural hand wrote charac- 
ters of fire and wrath upon its walls. — It 
was at this period, and in fulfilment of the 
prophecy, that Cyrus broke asunder its gates 
of brass, and couched himself on the throne 
of Assyria." 

Accounts of the conquest of Babylon are 
given us by Herodotus and Xenophon, two of 
the oldest and most authentic of the heathen his- 
torians ; and their narratives confirm, in the most 
conclusive manner, the divine authority of the 
Hebrew prophets. There is scarcely a parti- 
cular related by the former which is not a 
striking fulfilment of some prediction that had 
been uttered by the latter. 

Cyrus, who was the conqueror of Babylon, 
and the deliverer of the Jews, was expressly 
designated as such, by the prophet Isaiah, more 
than a hundred years before his birth. See Isa. 
xliv, 27, 28, and xlv, 1-3, where he is honoured 
with the appellation of the Lord's " anointed ;" 
and the Lord is said to have "holden his right 
hand" and to have " girded him." 

The prophets mentioned by name not only 
the principal individual, but also the nations by 
whom the empire of Babylon should be over- 
thrown. " The Lord hath raised up the spirit of 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 273 

the kings of the Medes; for his device is against 
Babylon, to destroy it" Jer. li, 11. " Go up, O 
Elam; besiege, O Media," Isa. xxi, 2. "Elam" 
was the ancient name of Persia, which was so 
called from Elam the son of Shem, by whose 
descendants it was originally settled. Babylon, 
as is well known, was besieged and captured 
by the united forces of the Medes and Persians, 
under the command of Cyrus. The king of 
the Medes at this time was Cyaxares, who is 
called, in Scripture, Darius the Median. Cyrus 
was the king of Persia, and nephew of Cy- 
axares. 

It was foreshown that the Medes and Per- 
sians should be aided in their undertaking by 
other nations. "Blow the trumpet among the 
nations ; call together against her the kingdoms 
of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz ; prepare 
against her the nations with the kings of the 
Medes," Jer. li, 27, 28. By "Ararat" and 
w Minni" are meant the Greater and Less Ar- 
menia. What nation is intended by " Ashche- 
naz" is less certain; but it is commonly sup- 
posed to mean Phrygia; a conclusion which 
seems to be favoured by a passage in Homer, 
where he speaks of 

" The Phrygians from Ascania's distant land." 
18 



274 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Cyrus had subdued Armenia, Phrygia, and 
all the other nations of Asia Minor,* before he 
attempted the siege of Babylon ; and these 
nations were compelled to act as his allies in 
that expedition. Xenophon expressly men- 
tions the Armenians, Phrygians, Lydians, Cap- 
padocians, &c, as forming part of his army. 

It was predicted that the invaders of Baby- 
lon should come from the north. " I will cause 
to come up against Babylon an assembly of 
great nations from the north country" Jer. 1, 9. 
"The spoilers shall come upon her from the 
north" Jer. li, 48. All the countries mentioned 
in the preceding paragraph lie to the north of 
Babylon. 

" The mighty men of Babylon have for eborne to 
fight; they have remained in their holds ; their 
might hath failed; they became as women" Jer. 
li, 30. When the king of Babylon heard of the 
approach of Cyrus, he marched out with his 
army to give him battle ; but the " mighty men," 
who in former years had carried the terror of 
their arms to distant nations, were overthrown 

* In the conquest of these countries we see the fulfil- 
ment of that prophecy respecting Cyrus, in which it was 
said that the Lord would subdue nations before him. Isa. 
xlv, 1. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 275 

with little difficulty, and driven back into the 
city. From this time the Babylonians "for- 
bore to fight ;" dispirited by their defeat, they 
ventured not again to try the fortune of arms, 
but " remained in their holds" during the whole 
of the time that the city was besieged by the 
Persians. 

The besiegers were unable to draw out the 
Babylonians to a combat in the open field, and 
they found it impossible to take by assault a 
city that was defended by such high and mas- 
sive walls. They then proposed to blockade 
the city, and reduce it by famine : but this 
was soon found to be equally impracticable ; for 
the inhabitants had provisions stored up in the 
city sufficient to last for several years, besides 
what they were able to raise in the fields and gar- 
dens that were included within the walls. After 
a fruitless siege of two years, therefore, Cyrus 
resolved on attempting to get possession of the 
city by stratagem ; and in this he succeeded. 
That the city should be taken in this way, and 
not by force, was foretold in Jer. 1, 24, where it 
is said, "I have laid a sn are for thee, and thou art 
also taken, Babylon, and thou wast not aware" 

To understand the method by which Baby- 
lon was taken, it should be remembered, that 
the Euphrates ran through the city, with which 



276 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

it communicated by means of numerous brazen 
gates ; and also that there was in the vicinity 
an immense artificial lake, which had been con- 
structed for the purpose of receiving the over- 
flowings of the river at the time of its annual 
inundations. Cyrus, by opening the great dam 
of the trench which led from the river to the 
lake, diverted the stream from its proper course, 
and thus laid the channel, where it went 
through the city, almost dry. As soon as it 
was dark, the Persians, dividing themselves 
into two bodies, went down into the bed of 
the river, both above and below the city, and 
marched silently along the bottom till they 
reached the gates that led into the city, and 
finding them open, they immediately entered, 
and took the place by surprise. In this re- 
markable stratagem, the following predictions 
respecting the capture of Babylon were lite- 
rally fulfilled: — "I am the Lord — that saith to 
the deep, i Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:' 
that saith of Cyrus, ' He shall perform all my 
pleasure ; — and / will open before him the two- 
leaved gates ; and the gates shall not be shut,' " 
Isa. xliv, 27, 28 ; xlv, 1. It was the invariable 
custom to close these gates every night ; but 
on this occasion they had been negligently 
left open. Had not this been the case, Cyrus's 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 277 

stratagem would have availed him nothing ; 
and had the Babylonians been aware at the 
moment what he was doing, they might not 
only have saved themselves, but might have 
caught the Persians in their own snare ; for 
had they shut the gates leading to the river, 
and ascended the walls which lined its banks, 
they would have enclosed the besiegers as in 
a net, and might have poured destruction upon 
them in a thousand shapes. But the attack 
was made in a quarter where the Babyloni- 
ans anticipated no danger ; and, in the lan- 
guage of the prophet, trouble came upon them 
suddenly, of which they had no apprehension. 

The chief cause of this unparalleled negli- 
gence on the part of the Babylonians, was the 
fact that they were then engaged in the cele- 
bration of one of their great annual festivals, 
and were, according to their usual practice on 
such occasions, spending the night in revel- 
ling and drunkenness ; and it was the know- 
ledge of this fact that induced Cyrus to under- 
take his singularly bold and adventurous expe- 
dition. Feeling secure in the protection of their 
impregnable walls, the entire population of the 
city had given themselves up to festivity. The 
king was " drinking wine" with his " thousand 
lords," and the voice of joy, and the noise of 



278 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

riot resounded through the palace. But while 
they were enjoying themselves in careless se- 
curity, the victorious besiegers entered the city 
unperceived, and surprised them in the midst of 
their mirth. " That night was Belshazzar, king 
of the Chaldeans, slain ;" and the nobles of 
Babylon passed from the banqueting-house to 
the grave.* Thus had the voice of prophecy 
declared that it should be. " In their heat I 
will make their feasts, and I will make them 
drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a per- 
petual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord. — And 
I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, 
her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men : 
and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not 
wake" Jer. li, 39, 57. 

" One post shall run to meet another, and one 
messenger to meet another, to show the king of 
Babylon that his city is taken at one end," Jer. li, 
31. The import of this prediction plainly is, 
that a messenger despatched to the palace from 
one end of the city with the information that 
the city was taken at the point from which 
he started, should there meet another messen- 
ger bringing the same intelligence from the op- 
posite quarter. We have already stated, that 

* Read, in connection with the above, the fifth chapter 
of Daniel. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 279 

Cyrus formed his troops into two divisions, one 
of which entered at each end of the city ; and 
we learn from Herodotus, that owing to the 
great extent of the city, and the suddenness of 
the attack, the people in the extreme parts 
were made prisoners before those in the centre 
knew any thing of their danger. The first in- 
telligence, therefore, of the capture of the city, 
that would reach the palace, which stood in the 
centre, would naturally be communicated by 
messengers or fugitives from each end. 

" Her young men shall fall in the streets, and 
all her men of war shall be cut off" Jer. 1, 30 ; 
" Every one that is found shall be thrust through" 
Isa. xiii, 15. Such is the prophecy ; and what 
was the fact ? Xenophon informs us that Cy- 
rus, after he had taken the city, " sent a body 
of horse up and down through the streets, bid- 
ding them kill those that they found abroad ; 
and ordering some who understood the Syrian 
language, to proclaim it to those that were in 
the houses to remain within, and that if any 
were found abroad they should be killed. These 
men did accordingly." 

The next morning, as soon as it was light, 
the soldiers who kept the citadel, being ap- 
prised of the capture of the city and the death 
of the king, gave it up without resistance to 



280 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

the conqueror, who immediately placed in it a 
garrison of his own troops. He then issued a 
proclamation requiring the Babylonians, on 
pain of death, to give up all their arms, which 
they accordingly did. After this he imposed 
taxes upon them, and distributed their principal 
houses and palaces as rewards to those whom 
he considered most deserving among his offi- 
cers. Thus did Cyrus, almost without any loss 
on his part, make himself master of the strongest 
city in the world. 

By this blow an end was put to the great As- 
syrian empire of Babylon, by which so many 
other empires had been overthrown ; and thus, 
as had been predicted, " the hammer" which had 
broken the nations was at length itself " cut 
asunder and broken" Jer. 1, 23. 

The inspired seers declared that Babylon 
should never recover from its overthrow. " It 
shall sink" said Jeremiah, " and shall not rise 
again" Jer. li, 64. The prophet Isaiah, too, in 
foretelling its ruin, made use of a comparison 
which precluded all hope of its restoration. 
" It shall be" said he, " as ivhen God overthrew 
Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabit- 
ed, neither shad it be dwelt in from generation to 
generation" Isa. xiii, 19, 20. It was in the last 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 281 

particular — its final and utter desolation — that 
Babylon was to resemble the " cities of the 
plain ;" for as to the method and time employ- 
ed in producing the determined end, there was 
in the two cases a wide difference. In the one 
case it was accomplished, as in a moment, by 
the immediate interposition of Heaven ; in the 
other, human agency was employed to bring about 
the same end by slow though sure degrees. 

The first step in its progress to ruin was its 
ceasing to be the sole capital of the empire ; 
the Persian kings preferring to reside the great- 
er part of their time at Susa, [Shushan,] Ecba- 
tana, and Persepolis. This was a great blow to 
the prosperity and importance of Babylon. 

The next step to its desolation was its re- 
bellion against Darius Hystaspes,* which 
took place about twenty years after its capture 
by Cyrus. Impatient of their subjection, and 
relying as heretofore upon the strength of their 
fortifications, which had been in no wise in- 
jured by the conquerors, the Babylonians, after 

* This monarch was the third in succession from Cyrus. 
Cyrus was succeeded by his son Cambyses, and he by a 
usurper named Smerdis : the former of these is called in 
Scripture Ahasuerus, and the latter, Artaxerxes. Ezra iv, 
5-24. Darius Hystaspes is the Darius spoken of in the 
same chapter. 



282 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

having secretly stored the city with provisions 
for a siege, broke into open revolt, and defied 
the whole power of the Persian empire. Da- 
rius with his forces marched against the city, 
and the Babylonians, finding themselves beset 
with an army which they were unable to with- 
stand in the open field, turned their whole at- 
tention to the supporting of themselves during 
the blockade, trusting that they would be en- 
abled to hold out until Darius, wearied by the 
length of the siege, and hopeless of taking the 
city, should give up the attempt in despair. To 
make their provisions last the longer they deter- 
mined to put to death all who were unable to 
assist in the defence of the city ; and accord- 
ingly they strangled all their wives, sisters, 
daughters, and young children, except that 
every man saved from his family one female 
whom he loved the best. May we not con- 
sider this as the fulfilment of that prophecy of 
Isaiah (xlvii, 9) which declared, that " in one 
day two things, loss of children and widowhood, 
should come upon them in their perfection?" 
" For," as Dr. Prideaux observes, " in what 
greater perfection could these calamities come 
upon them, than when they themselves, thus 
upon themselves, became the executioners of 
them ?" 



6CRIPTURE PROPHECY. 283 

The barbarous policy of the Babylonians, 
however, availed them nothing; for Darius, after 
having vainly spent a year and eight months in 
the siege, at length took the city by the follow- 
ing extraordinary stratagem : — 

Zopyrus, one of Darius's most honourable 
nobles, after having cut off his nose and ears, 
and mangled his body with stripes, fled in this 
deplorable condition to the besieged. He re- 
presented to the Babylonians that the cruel 
treatment of which his body bore such indeli- 
ble marks, had been inflicted upon him by Da- 
rius, because he had advised that monarch to 
give up the siege ; and pretended that he was 
now burning with a desire to revenge himself 
upon the tyrant. The Babylonians, suspecting 
nothing, admitted him to their councils and 
their confidence, and gave him an important 
military command. After he had successfully 
attacked, and entirely destroyed three several 
detachments of the Persian troops, and when 
it was supposed that his fidelity had been suffi- 
ciently proved, he was raised to the chief com- 
mand of the army, and intrusted with the high 
and responsible office of guardian of the walls. 
Darius, as if about to make an assault, then 
advanced with all his army to the walls ; when 
Zopyrus, as he had designed, opened the gates 



284 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

to him, and the city was taken without difficul- 
ty. The treachery of Zopyrus equally sur- 
prised the Persians and the Babylonians ; for 
the whole scheme was preconcerted by him 
and Darius, and, until its development, was 
unknown to any other person. 

As soon as the Persians got possession of 
the place, they put three thousand of the princi- 
pal citizens, who had been most active in the 
revolt, to a painful and lingering death. They 
were cruel, and showed no mercy. Jer. 1, 42. 

Darius then took effectual measures to pre- 
vent a second insurrection of the inhabitants ; 
for he broke down the greater part of the walls, 
reducing them to one-fourth of their former 
height ; and he also took away the gates. And 
herein commenced the fulfilment of that prophe- 
cy of Jeremiah which declared that " the broad 
walls of Babylon should be utterly broken, and her 
high gates burned with fire"* Jer. li, 58. 

After its conquest by Darius, Babylon was 
always regarded by the Persian monarchs with 

* By the prediction that the " gates" should be " burned 
with fire," we can understand no more than that they 
should be taken away and melted down, that the metal of 
which they were composed might be used for some other 
purpose ; for being made of solid brass, they could not be 
"burned" in the ordinary sense of the word. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 285 

a jealous eye. Xerxes, the son and successor 
of Darius, on his return from his unsuccessful 
expedition into Greece, passed through Baby- 
lon : while there, he laid hands upon the 
massive golden statue, and other treasures con- 
tained in the temple of Belus ; and then com- 
manded that vast and magnificent building to be 
destroyed. According to Arrian, the other tem- 
ples in the city also shared the same fate. The 
value of the images and other plunder taken by 
Xerxes at this time, amounted, according to the 
account furnished by Diodorus, to about one hun- 
dred millions of dollars. In the pillage and de- 
struction of these temples we see the fulfilment 
of the following predictions : — " / will punish 
Bel in Babylon ; I will bring forth out of his 
mouth that which he had swallowed up; and I 
will do judgment upon all the graven images 
of Babylon" Jer. li, 44, 47. See also similar 
predictions in Isa. xxi, 9, and Jer. 1, 2. 

After Alexander had overthrown the Per 
sians, he advanced to Babylon, which he took 
without resistance ; for the Persians had been 
such severe masters to the Babylonians, that 
the latter hailed with joy the change of rulers, 
and poured forth in crowds to meet the con- 
queror. On entering the city, his first care 
was to restore the shrines^ that had been, de- 



286 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

stroyed by Xerxes ; and he even undertook to 
rebuild the temple of Belus in all its former 
magnificence. In this undertaking he was 
eagerly assisted by all the inhabitants except 
the Jews, who alone refused to have any thing 
to do with the work ; but the attempt was soon 
abandoned, for the mass of rubbish under 
which the remains of the temple lay buried 
was so immense, that Strabo tells us ten thou- 
sand men would have been required to work 
for two months in only clearing it away. The 
design of Alexander was to restore Babylon to 
its ancient glory, and make it the metropolis of 
his empire, and the central point of the com- 
merce of the world; and, with his characteris- 
tic energy, he took measures to carry his plans 
into effect. But Providence interposed. At 
the very moment when it seemed as if the de- 
clared purpose of Jehovah respecting Babylon 
was about to be frustrated, Alexander, then in 
the height of his glory, and the flower of his 
age, was cut off, and his project perished with 
him.* 

Babylon was at this time completely fallen 
from her ancient splendour, and was beginning 
to wear a desolate appearance. Seleucus Ni- 

* He died at Babylon, in the year 323 before Christ, 
and in the thirty-second or thirty-third year of his age. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 287 

cator, who succeeded Alexander in this portion 
of his empire, abandoned Babylon altogether, 
and transferred the capital of his kingdom to a 
new city which he had built on the banks of 
the Tigris, and which he called Seleucia, after 
his own name. To this place the greater part 
of the inhabitants of Babylon removed. 

From this period Babylon rapidly hastened 
to that state of utter desolation to which it had 
been doomed by the word of prophecy. Strabo 
says, — " None of Alexander's successors ever 
cared more for Babylon ; and the remains of 
that city were entirely neglected. The Per- 
sians destroyed one part of it, and time, and the 
indifference of the Macedonian princes, com- 
pleted its ruin, especially after Seleucus Nica- 
tor had built Seleucia in its neighbourhood. 
And now (he adds) Seleucia is greater than 
Babylon, which is so much deserted that one 
may apply to it what the comic poet said of 
another place, 

'The great city is become a great desert.' " 

Such was its condition in the time of Stra- 
bo, who flourished a few years before the birth 
of Christ. Pausanias, who lived nearly two 
hundred years later, says, there was then 
" nothing remaining but the walls j" and Lu- 



288 SCRIPTURE PROPIIECV. 

cian, who wrote about the same time, remarks, 
that " Babylon, like Nineveh, would soon be 
sought for and not be found." 

St. Jerome, in the fourth century, says he 
was informed, by a certain Elamite brother 
who came from those parts, that the royal 
huntings were in Babylon, and that wild beasts 
of every kind were enclosed within the circuit 
of its walls, which had been repaired for that 
purpose. All the space within the walls, he 
tells us, was a desolation.* Cyril of Alexan- 
dria, who died in 444, tells us, that the canals 
drawn from the Euphrates having filled up, the 
soil of Babylon had become nothing better than 
a marsh. 

Thus it appears, that in the fifth century af- 
ter Christ, the purpose of the Lord respecting 
Babylon, to make it " a desolation without 
an inhabitant," had been fully accomplished. 

The prophets not only foretold the destruction 
of Babylon, and the circumstances that should 
lead to it, but also depicted, with singular 
minuteness and accuracy, the appearance which 
it would exhibit in its state of desolation ; 
and the wonderful correspondence between 
their predictions and the narratives of those 

* St. Jerome on Isaiah ; quoted by Bishop Newton. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 289 

travellers who have visited the place, fully es- 
tablish the divinity of that inspiration under 
which they wrote and spoke. 

" The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly bro- 
ken, — yea, the walls of Babylon shall fall" Jer. li, 
44, 58. The walls of Babylon are said by Hero- 
dotus to have been two hundred cubits, or three 
hundred and fifty feet high ; while Strabo states 
their height at fifty cubits. They were re- 
duced from the former height to the latter by 
Darius, (as mentioned in page 284.) and in that 
circumstance, this prediction was partially ful- 
filled. Since that time, the words of the pro- 
phecy have been accomplished in their fullest 
signification. " The broad walls of Babylon 
are utterly broken." Among the numerous tra- 
vellers who have visited the site, some of 
whom have traversed the ruins for miles, in 
various directions, and expended days in their 
search after the walls of Babylon, not one has 
succeeded in discovering the least vestige of 
their remains, or any thing to point out the 
spot on which they stood. One traveller [Capt. 
Frederick] explored a tract of country twelve 
miles in width and twenty-one in length, along 
the Euphrates, examining both banks of the 
river, and could perceive nothing to indicate 
that either a wall or a ditch had ever exist- 
19 



290 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

ed within this area. It may at first view excite as- 
tonishment that not the slightest traces of these 
prodigious walls are now to be seen ; but this as- 
tonishment will be somewhat abated when it is 
remembered, that for more than two thousand 
years the ruins of Babylon have served as 
quarries for the construction of new cities. 
Nearly all the cities that have arisen in its 
neighbourhood within that period have been built 
with bricks taken from thence ; and even at 
the present day, persons are almost continu- 
ally engaged in digging into the remaining 
mounds of ruins and carrying away the bricks 
as fast as they can extract them. 

" Cast her up as heaps, and destroy Iter utter- 
ly" Jer. 1, 26. " Babylon shall become heaps" 
Jer. li, 37. There is no standing ruin of this 
primitive and devoted city, but the whole is a 
collection of " heaps," which at a distance ap- 
pear like natural hills, except that no green 
thing grows upon them ; but a nearer approach 
shows that they are composed of bricks and rub- 
bish, and cover all that remains of " the beauty of 
the Chaldee's excellency." "The ruins," says 
Mr. Rich, " consist of mounds of earth, formed by 
the decomposition of buildings, channelled and 
furrowed by the weather, and the surface of 
them strewed with pieces of brick, bitumen 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 291 

and pottery." These heaps or mounds, he 
tells us, " are of such indeterminate figures, 
variety, and extent, as to involve in inextricable 
confusion the person who should have formed 
any theory respecting them." " Vast heaps,' 1 
says Mr. Keppel, " constitute all that now re- 
mains of ancient Babylon." Mr. Ryal says, — 
" The ruins were visible at some distance, and 
rose above the plain in several detached and 
gigantic masses. On a near examination, we 
found them to consist of a collection of lofty 
ridges, and some immense heaps of pulverized 
bricks and rubbish, excavated and turned up in 
every direction." In another place he remarks, 
— " So complete and signal has been the de- 
struction of Babylon, and so truly have the pro- 
phecies concerning her been fulfilled, that the 
traveller, in contemplating the almost undefma- 
ble evidences of her former existence, may 
look in vain, beyond a few broken mounds and 
heaps of rubbish, for more satisfactory proofs to 
assist him in his researches."* Other travel- 
lers also describe the ruins of Babylon as con- 
sisting of mere " heaps," " hillocks," "mounds," 
&c. 

* Journal of an excursion to Babylon and the tower of 
Babel, in 1839. Published in the London Methodist Maga- 
zine for June, 1840. 



292 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

" And I will make it — pools of water" Isa. xiv, 
23. The canals and embankments, constructed 
to preserve the country during annual inunda- 
tions, being now destroyed, the river overflows 
unrestrained ; " and the floods, in their season, 
convert the surrounding country into a morass 
of many miles in extent."* " The ruins of Ba- 
bylon are then inundated so as to render many 
parts of them inaccessible, by converting the 
valleys among them into morasses ."t " For a 
long time after the general subsiding of the 
Euphrates, great part of the plain is little bet- 
ter than a swamp ; and large deposites of water 
are left stagnant in the hollows between the 
ruins ; again verifying the threat denounced 
against it."J 

" It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be 
dwelt ill from generation to generation" Isa. xiii, 
20. All writers and travellers agree in declar- 
ing that the ruins of Babylon have for ages 
been wholly forsaken. Fourteen centuries have 
passed away since they were inhabited by 
man. Babylon is now " a tenantless and deso- 
late metropolis. "§ " The solitude of death 
reigns where a tumultuous throng once crowd- 
ed the streets ; and the silence of the tomb is 
substituted for the hum of public places." The 
*Ryal. tRich. t Porter. §Keppel. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 293 

full accomplishment of the prophecy is also 
certain : — " Babylon shall be desolate for ever, — it 
shall never be inhabited ;" its ruins, as we have 
already described them, being in such a state 
as to preclude the possibility of their ever being 
again tenanted oy human beings. 

" Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; 
neither shall the shepherds make their folds there" 
Isa. xiii, 20. Not only is Babylon destitute of 
settled inhabitants, but even the wild sons of 
Ishmael, in their wandering life, refuse to pitch 
their tents amid its ruins, or to fold their flocks 
upon its desecrated site. One reason for this 
is the fact that no pasture is to be found there ; 
" the whole site being a perfect desolation, on 
which nothing useful to man, or to the beasts 
for which he cares, can be discovered." Be- 
sides this, the Arabs are so firmly convinced 
that the ruins are haunted by multitudes of evil 
spirits, that even when employed as guides to 
travellers, they cannot be induced to remain in 
the neighbourhood of the principal mounds after 
night-fall. This superstitious dread would, of 
itself, prevent the Arabian from pitching his 
tent there, even if he could find rich pastures 
for his flock. * 

" But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; 

* Pictorial Bible — Rich's Memoir — Mignan's Travels. 



294 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; 
and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs* shall dance 
there" Isa. xiii, 21. The ruins deserted by 
man are tenanted by the wild beasts of the 
forest ; and the untamed lion is now undisputed 
sovereign of the once mighty Babylon. When 
Mr. Porter, with his party, were approaching 
the principal mound of ruins, (the Birs Nim- 
rood,) they were suddenly startled at beholding 
several dark objects moving along on its sum- 
mit. Mr. Porter, having taken out his glass to 
examine, says, — " I soon distinguished that the 
cause of our alarm were two or three majestic 
lions taking the air upon the height of the 
pyramid. Perhaps I had never beheld so sub- 
lime a picture presented to the mind as well as 
to the eye. While we continued slowly to 
advance, the hallooing of the people made the 

* " It is rather difficult to define the precise meaning 
which should here be given to the original word Sherim. In 
its primary sense something hairy or rough is intended, as 
in Gen. xxvii, 11. In Levit. iv, 24, and xvi, 9, it is ap- 
plied to the goat ; and in Levit. xvii, 7, and 2 Chron. xi, 
15, it is applied to objects of idolatrous worship, (perhaps 
in the form of goats,) and translated ' devils.' Most of 
the rabbins suppose demons to be denoted ; and if so, it 
must be supposed to mean that demons should be reputed 
to * dance there,' which is literally true, as we have already 
stated." — Pictorial Bible. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 295 

noble beasts gradually change their position, 
till, in the course of twenty minutes, they to- 
tally disappeared. We then rode close up to 
the ruins. In my progress I stopped several 
times to look at the broad prints of the feet of 
the lions, left plainly in the clayey soil ; and 
by the track, I saw that if we had chosen to 
rouse such royal game we need not go far to 
find their lair. While thus actually contem- 
plating these savage tenants, wandering amidst 
the ruins of Babylon, and bedding themselves 
in the deep cavities of her once magnificent 
temple, I could not but reflect how faithfully 
the various prophecies respecting her had been 
fulfilled, verifying, in fact, the very words of 
Isaiah, — 'Wild beasts of the desert shall lie 
there.' " In another place he tells us that the 
caverns " are now the refuge of jackals and 
other savage animals." Mr. Ryal says, — " The 
summits and sides of the mounds present in- 
numerable deep pits and excavations, the dens 
and undisturbed retreats of wolves, hyenas, jack- 
als, and wild boars" Mr. Keppel saw a large 
animal couched among the ruins ; and also, the 
foot-prints of a lion so fresh that the animal 
must have stolen away on his approach. The 
entrances to the dens, he tells us, were " strew- 
ed with the carcasses and skeletons of animals 



296 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

recently killed ;" and his guide informed him, 
that " the ruins abounded in lions and other 
wild beasts" Mr. Rich says, — " There are 
many dens of wild beasts in various parts, in 
one of which I found the bones of sheep and 
other animals, and perceived a strong smell 
like that of a lion. I also found quantities of 
porcupine quills, and in most of the cavities 
are numbers of bats and owls" 

The editor of the Pictorial Bible is of opinion 
that much of what is prophesied in Scripture 
respecting Babylon, is to be understood as re- 
ferring to all the ancient cities of Babylonia. 
Speaking of these, he says, — " Most of the sites 
that we examined were pierced with holes and 
caverns, the retreats of wild beasts of the desert, 
and doleful creatures. In these sites we have 
seen the footsteps of lions, have observed jack- 
als, and have been apprised of the presence 
of hyenas, porcupines, lizards, bats, owls, and 
other fierce and gloomy animals. About the 
mouths of the caves may be seen the bones 
of sheep, goats, buffaloes, and even camels ; 
while the intolerable stench from some of the 
dens, confirmed the evidence which these indi- 
cations afforded. " 

M Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that 
handleth the sickle in the time of harvest" Jer. 1, 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 297 

16. The walls of Babylon enclosed a con- 
siderable portion of country, which was not 
built upon, but cultivated and ploughed for 
corn ; so that in case of siege it was impos- 
sible to starve the inhabitants into a surrender, 
they being able to support themselves by their 
internal resources. But now the sower is cut off 
from Babylon; "its ruins, composed of heaps of 
rubbish impregnated with nitre, cannot be cul- 
tivated."* " The soil, for miles around, con- 
sists of the grit and clay formed by the decom- 
position of buildings, and contains no principle 
friendly to vegetation. Hence the site of Ba- 
bylon is marked, even in a region generally 
desolate, by an appearance of utter barrenness 
and blast, as if from the curse of God ; which 
gives a most intense and mournful corrobora- 
tion to the denunciations of Scripture pro- 
phecy."! 

The divine maledictions were pronounced 
not only against Babylon itself, but also the 
whole surrounding country. " / will punish 
the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it 
perpetual desolations" Jer. xxv, 12. All wri- 
ters concur in representing this tract of coun- 
try as being for the most part a desolate waste. 
" It is," says Mr. Rich, " the most flat, barren, 
* Rich. f Pictorial Bible. 



298 SCRIPTURE PROPHLCV. 

and dreary, that can possibly be imagined." 
" The face of the country presents evidences 
of having undergone a sad and melancholy 
change ; immense and stupendous embank- 
ments of canals and aqueducts, now choked 
up, for miles intersect the plain ; undeniable 
and existing proofs, that this part of Mesopo- 
tamia, now an uninhabitable desert, must at one 
time have been a highly cultivated and popu- 
lous region."* The country which Herodotus 
declared to be the most fertile he had ever 
known, " is now one utter desert, offering 
only some patches of cultivation near the few 
settlements which it contains."! " Its abun- 
dance has vanished as clean away as if 'the 
besom of destruction' had swept it from north 
to south ; the whole land, to the furthest stretch 
of vision, lying a melancholy waste. "J 

" Babylon shall become an astonishment and a 
hissing. — Every one that passeth by shall be as- 
tonished" Jer. 1, 13 ; li, 37. None can look, 
without feelings of mingled awe and astonish- 
ment, upon the now silent and solitary waste 
which was Babylon. " I cannot," observes 
one traveller, § " portray the overpowering sen- 
sations of reverential awe that possessed my 

* Ryal. f Pictorial Bible. % Portor. 

§ Capt. Mignan, as quoted by Keith. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 299 

mind while conteraolating the extent and mag- 
nitude of ruin and devastation on every side." 
" A more complete picture of desolation," says 
Mr. Keppel, " could not well be imagined. The 
eye wanders over a barren desert, in which the 
ruins are nearly the only indication that it had 
ever been inhabited. It is impossible to behold 
the scene, and not to be reminded how exactly 
the predictions of Isaiah and Jeremiah have 
been fulfilled, even in the appearance which 
Babylon was doomed to present." Mr. Porter 
thus expresses his feelings on approaching its 
ruinous site : — " As we crossed a bridge which 
led us into these immense tumuli of temples, 
palaces, and human habitations of every de- 
scription, now buried in shapeless heaps, and a 
silence as profound as the grave, I could not 
but feel an indescribable awe in thus pass- 
ing as it were into the gates of fallen Babylon. 
A ride of an hour and a quarter more brought 
us to the north-east shore of the Euphrates, 
hitherto excluded from our view by the in- 
tervention of long and varied lines of ruin, 
which now proclaimed to us on every side 
that we were, indeed, in the very midst of what 
had been Babylon. These consisted of masses 
of ancient foundations, more resembling natural 
hills in appearance, than mounds covering the 



300 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

remains of former great and splendid edifices. 
Chains of these undulating heaps were every- 
where visible. The view was particularly- 
solemn. The majestic stream of the Euphra- 
tes, wandering in solitude like a pilgrim mo- 
narch through the silent ruins of his devas- 
tated kingdom, still appeared a noble river, 
even under all the disadvantages of his desert- 
tracked course. — But how changed the rest of 
the scene ! These broken hills were once pa- 
laces ; these long, undulating mounds were 
streets ; this vast solitude was filled with the 
busy subjects of the proud daughter of the 
East. Now, wasted with misery, her habita- 
tions are not to be found." " She is become an 
astonishment and a hissing ;" u her pomp is 
brought down to the grave ; the worm is spread 
over her" Isa. xiv, 1 1 . 

Among the ruins of Babylon there are four, 
which, on account of their stupendous size, 
have excited the astonishment of all who have 
witnessed them. These are severally denomi- 
nated the Amram Hill, the Kasr, the Mujelibe, 
and the Birs Nimrood. The following descrip- 
tion of them is condensed from the accounts of 
several travellers. 

The ruins of Babylon are, with the exception 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 301 

of the Birs, almost wholly confined to the east- 
ern side of the river, commencing about two 
miles above the modern town of Hillah. The 
first grand mass of ruin which the traveller 
meets with after leaving Hillah is that called the 
Amram Hill. This mound is nearly triangular 
in form ; its longest side is upward of four thou- 
sand feet in length, and its shortest about 
twenty-five hundred ; its height is very irregu- 
lar, but the most elevated part is about fifty feet 
above the level of the plain. Its sides are 
pierced with numerous furrows and ravines, 
which have been formed by digging into it for 
the purpose of extracting the bricks. Besides 
its immense size, this heap offers no peculiarity 
worthy of notice ; being nothing more than a 
vast and irregular mass, composed of earth 
mixed with fragments of bricks, broken pottery, 
mortar, and bitumen, where the foot of the tra- 
veller sinks at every step into the loose dust 
and rubbish. The name of Amram was given 
to it from an unfounded tradition that a Moham- 
medan saint of that name was buried there. 
Its original state or designation, it is now im- 
possible to determine. 

From the northern side of this mound, a val- 
ley, one thousand six hundred feet in length, 
covered with tussocks of rank grass, conducts 



302 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

the traveller to the second grand heap of ruins, 
which is called by the natives El Kasr, or the 
palace, from a not improbable tradition, that it 
comprises the remains of the ancient residence 
of the Babylonian kings. This mound is in 
shape nearly square, and measures about two 
thousand feet in length and breadth. Its height 
is about the same as that of the Amram Hill. 
Vast heaps of rubbish, overtopping each other 
like the waves of a great sea, intercept the pro- 
gress of the traveller as he scrambles up its 
ascent, or wanders over its summit. Every 
vestige discoverable in it declares it to have been 
composed of buildings far superior to all others 
on the eastern side ; the bricks in the other 
mounds being merely sun-dried, while these 
are of the finest description of furnace-burned 
brick,* perfectly moulded, and having inscrip- 

* " We find two kinds of brick in Babylon ; the one burn- 
ed in a kiln, the other dried in the sun. The general size 
of the kiln-burned brick is thirteen inches square, by three 
thick. They are of several different colours ; the finest 
ire of a whitish yellow, like our fire bricks ; the coarsest 
are red, like our common bricks ; and there are some 
which have a blackish cast, and are very hard. The sun- 
dried bricks are considerably larger than those baked in the 
kiln, and in general look like thick, clumsy clods of earth, 
in which are seen small broken reeds, or chopped straw, 
used for the obvious purpose of binding them." — Rich. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECi'. 303 

tions on the lower surface ; and although they 
have been continually .taken away from this 
place, as from a great storehouse, for centuries,, 
they still appear to be abundant. The opera- 
tion of extracting the bricks has greatly dis- 
figured the appearance of the mound, as the 
workmen in search of them, dig into it in every 
direction, hollowing out deep ravines and pits, 
and throwing up the rubbish in heaps on the 
surface. In some places they have bored into 
the solid mass, forming winding caverns and 
subterranean passages. In all these excava- 
tions, walls of burned brick, laid in lime mor- 
tar of a very good quality, are to be seen ; and 
in addition to the substances generally strewed 
on the surfaces of all these mounds, we here 
find fragments of alabaster vessels, fine earthen- 
ware, marble, and great quantities of varnished 
tiles, the glazing and colouring of which are 
surprisingly fresh. In this mound, too, Mr. 
Rich found sepulchral urns of earthenware, fill- 
ed with ashes, with some small fragments of 
bones in them. Under this mound, a subter- 
ranean passage, seven feet in height, has been 
discovered ; it is floored and walled with large 
bricks, and covered with pieces of sand-stone, 
a yard thick and several yards long. Near the 
centre of this mound is a very remarkable ruin, 



304 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 



which being uncovered, and in part detached 
from the rubbish, is visible from a considerable 
distance ; but is so surprisingly fresh in its ap- 
pearance that it was only after a minute inspec- 
tion that Mr. Rich was satisfied of its being in re- 
ality a Babylonian remain. It consists of several 
walls and piers, eight feet in thickness, in some 




North face of the Kasr. 

places ornamented with niches, and in others 
strengthened by pilasters and buttresses, built 
of fine burned brick, (still perfectly clean and 
sharp,) laid in lime cement of such tenacity that 
it is almost impossible to detach the bricks 
without breaking them ; and yet the layers of 
cement are not more than the twentieth part of 
an inch in thickness. On the outside the 
walls have, in some places, been cleared nearly 
to the foundations ; but the interior is rilled 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 305 

with rubbish, in some parts almost to the sum- 
mit. One portion of the wall has been split 
into three parts, and overthrown as if by an 
earthquake. Some detached walls of the same 
kind, standing at different distances, show that 
what remains is but a small part of the original 
fabric. The Kasr is by far the most perfect of 
all the ruins, and possesses a strong interest, 
from the probability of its being the sole re- 
mains of the magnificent palace in which Ne- 
buchadnezzar reigned and Daniel prophesied, 
upon whose walls the hand of the Lord in- 
scribed in mystic characters the doom of Baby- 
lon, and within whose precincts Cyrus and 
Alexander entered as conquerors. 

A mile to the north of the Kasr, and full five 
miles distant from Hillah, is the mound of ruins 
called Mujelibi, which signifies " the overturn- 
ed." It is of an oblong shape, and its height, 
as well as the measurement of its sides, is very 
irregular ; the northern side measures at the 
base six hundred feet, the southern six hundred 
and fifty-seven, the eastern five hundred and 
eighty-four, and the western four hundred and 
eight. Mr. Rich, in 1811, estimated the eleva- 
tion of the highest angle at one hundred and 
forty-one feet ; but Mr. Ryal, in 1839, states, as 
the result of a trigonometrical survey of the ruins, 
20 



306 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

undertaken by the officers of the British steamer 
Euphrates, then lying in the Tigris, that the 
height of the most elevated part of the Mujelibe 
was not then more than eighty feet. The summit 
presents abroad, uneven surface, and is covered 
with heaps of rubbish, in digging into some of 
which, layers of broken burned brick, cement- 
ed with mortar, are discovered, and here and 
there whole bricks, with inscriptions on them, 
are found. The mass of the structure is com- 
posed of bricks dried in the sun, and mixed 
with broken straw or reeds in the preparation. 
The outer edges of the bricks having moulder- 
ed away, it is only on a minute inspection that 
the nature of the materials can be discovered. 
When viewed from a distance the ruin has more 
the appearance of a small hill than a building ; 
and the ascent is in some parts so gentle that a 
person may ride over it. Some human skele- 
tons, enclosed in coffins, have been discovered 
in this ruin ; these, when found, were in a high 
state of preservation, but crumbled into dust 
soon after their exposure to the air. The sur- 
face of the mound is covered with innumerable 
fragments of pottery, brick, bitumen, pebbles, 
vitrified brick, and even shells, bits of glass, 
and mother-of-pearl. In the sides deep ravines 
have been sunk by the periodical rains, and 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 307 

there are numerous long narrow cavities or pas- 
sages, now the resort of wild beasts. This 
mound, unlike those we have before described, 
appears to be the remains of a single building, 
which in its original state must have been one 
of the most enormous masses of brick-work 
ever erected by the hand of man. What was 
the original destination of the Mujelibe, it is 
now impossible to determine ; some suppose it 
to have been the citadel or fortress which guard- 
ed this quarter of the city ; others imagine it to 
be the remains of the celebrated hanging-gar- 
dens ; while another party have claimed it to 
be the site of the temple of Belus. The lat 
ter distinction is now, however, pretty gene- 
rally conceded to the ruin called the Birs 
Nimrood. 

On the western side of the river there are 
no ruins of any consequence except the Birs 
Nimrood, (the tower of Nimrod,) which stands 
about six miles from the banks ; and is about 
ten miles south-west from the Mujelibe. It 
is the most interesting and remarkable of all 
the Babylonian remains, being, both in magni- 
tude and construction, far superior to the Mu- 
jelibe. This huge mass of building is of an 
oblong shape, and at its base measures two 
thousand two hundred and eighty-six feet in 



308 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 



circumference. At the eastern side it is not 
more than fifty or sixty feet high ; but on the 
western it rises from the plain in a pyramidal 
form to the elevation of one hundred and nine- 
ty-eight feet, and on its summit is a solid pile 




of brick, thirty-seven feet high by twenty-eight 
in breadth, diminishing in thickness to the top, 
which is broken and irregular, and rent by a 
large fissure extending through a third of its 
height; the entire height of the ruin on the 
western side is therefore two hundred and thir- 
ty-five feet. It is principally constructed of 
furnace-burned bricks, and appears to have been 
a solid structure built in receding stages ; traces 
of three of these stages are discernible in the 
mound, and the mass of brick-work on its sum- 
mit, which Mr. Rich tells us is of the finest 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 309 

masonry, was evidently the facing of a fourth 
stage. Every one who sees the Birs Nimrood, 
feels at once that of all masses of ruin found 
in this region, there is no other which both 
in form and dimensions so nearly corres- 
ponds with the accounts furnished by ancient 
writers respecting the temple of Belus. That 
building, according to these accounts, consisted 
of eight successive stages rising to the height 
of five hundred feet ; this ruin comprises four 
such stages (the latter imperfect) with an ele- 
vation of two hundred and thirty -five feet. The 
temple of Belus, too, is said to have measured 
five hundred feet on each side at the base, 
making its circumference two thousand feet ; 
the circumference of the Birs Nimrood is two 
thousand two hundred and eighty-six feet. The 
difference between the two is easily accounted 
for by the enlargement which the base of the 
ruin has undergone from the fall of the crumb- 
ling materials from the summit. We have al- 
ready suggested* the probable identity of the 
temple of Belus and the original tower of Ba- 
bel. If that first building begun by the nations 
has not altogether vanished from the earth, 
there can, we think, be little doubt that its re- 
mains are to be seen in the Birs Nimrood. 
*See page 261. 



310 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

On the summit of this mound are seen im- 
mense unshapen fragments of molten walls and 
vitrified masonry, some of which measured 
twelve feet in length, and twenty-four in cir- 
cumference. In most of them the regular lines 
of cement are perfectly discernible, and so har- 
dened in common with the bricks, that when 
the masses are struck they ring like glass. 
They are as hard as granite, and if seen near 
a factory, might be taken for smelted ore. They 
bore ample evidence that the pile had been de- 
stroyed by fire, and must have been laid waste 
by a great and most consuming conflagration. 
The heat of the fire which produced such amaz- 
ing effects must have burned with the force of 
the strongest furnace ; and from the general 
appearance of the cleft in the wall, and these 
vitrified masses, Mr. Porter is of opinion that 
the catastrophe was produced by lightning from 
heaven. Ruins occasioned by the explosion 
of any combustible matter would have exhibited 
very different appearances.* It cannot now 
be seen without recollecting the emphatic pro- 
phecy of Jeremiah, — " I will roll thee down 
from the rocks, and will make thee a burned 
mountain"^ 

* Rich — Ryal — Mignan — Porter, 
t Jeremiah li, 25. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 31 1 

The aspect of the Birs Nimrood is sublime 
even in its ruins. Towering above the desert, 
it still rears its shattered summit to the hea- 
vens, and seems in the distance like a hill sur- 
mounted with a tower. There are no remains 
in its neighbourhood of sufficient magnitude to 
detract from its appearance. It stands alone, 
as it were, in the midst of a solitary waste, 
"like the awful figure of prophecy herself, 
pointing to the fulfilment of her own predic- 
tions." 

Babylon is fallen ! and in her fall has 
added another to the sad catalogue of those who, 
hardening themselves against the Lord, have 
not prospered, (Job ix, 4.) Not one word of 
the prophecies pronounced against her has fail- 
ed of its accomplishment. She is become a 
desolation and an astonishment; " a place which 
the foot of man seldom traverses, which the 
* wild beasts of the desert' make their home, 
and none but the ' doleful creatures' of the earth 
inhabit." Her proud millions have been " car- 
ried away as with a flood ;" and the cry of the 
jackal, and the screech of the owl alone " scare 
affrighted silence from the walls " which once 
resounded with the din of business and the 
noise of festivity. The " golden city" has 



312 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

ceased ; the " beauty of the Chaldees' excel- 
lency" is departed ; 

" And Babylon that walk'd in pride 
Now sleeps a shapeless ruin." 

From this melancholy scene " we may draw 
a right image of the frailty of man, and the mu- 
tability of whatever is worldly ; and learn that 
as there is nothing unchangeable saving God, 
so nothing is stable but by his grace and pro- 
tection."* 

* Sandys, 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 313 

CHAPTER X. 

THE PROHECIES CONCERNING TYRE. 

Account of Phenicia— Tyre a Phenician city— Its situation, ori- 
gin, and antiquity— It comprised two cities ; one on an island, and 
the other on the continent — Its commercial advantages — Its pros- 
perous state in the time of the prophets— Reasons why the judg- 
ments of God were denounced against it — Continental Tyre is, 
according to the prophecy, taken and destroyed by Nebuchadnez- 
zar — The inhabitants escape to the insular town — The prosperity 
of the Tyrians is restored at the expiration of seventy years — In- 
sular Tyre besieged and taken by Alexander — Particulars of the 
siege — It again becomes a place of importance — Prediction that 
Tyre should be converted to the true religion — Fulfilment of this 
prediction — Prophecies of the utter desolation of Tyre — Fulfilment 
of these prophecies, according to the testimony of Sandys, Maun- 
drell, Shaw, Volney, Joliffe, Hardy, Robinson, and Olin. 

Tyre is a name which revives the grandest 
recollections. It was the most celebrated city 
of Phoenicia, and, for a long series of years, 
the greatest commercial emporium of the world. 
" To the Christian, its history is especially in- 
teresting, from its connection with prophecy, 
and from the striking eloquence with which 
inspiration has described the majesty of its 
brighter days, and the impressive circum- 
stances of its destruction."* 

Phoenicia, even in its most flourishing state, 
was one of the smallest countries of antiquity, 
* Hardy. 



314 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

It comprised that part of the Syrian coast ex- 
tending from Tyre to Aradus, (the Arvad of 
Scripture,) a narrow strip of land about one 
hundred and twenty miles in length from north 
to south; and probably nowhere more than 
eighteen or twenty miles in width. The space 
between Tyre and Arvad was occupied by 
several other towns and cities, all of which 
were distinguished for their arts, manufactures, 
and commerce. Of these places, the most 
eminent were Sidon, Sarepta, Beritus, (the 
modern Beyroot,) Byblus, (the Gebal of Scrip- 
ture,) and Tripolis. The line of coast, thus 
studded with flourishing cities, " with its har- 
bours and sea-ports, and the numerous fleets 
lying within them, must have afforded alto- 
gether a spectacle scarcely to be equalled in 
the world, and must have excited in the stran- 
ger who visited them the highest idea of the 
opulence, the power, and the enterprising spi- 
rit of their inhabitants."* 

The most ancient of these cities was Sidon, 
which was the foundress of the trade and na- 
vigation of the Phoenicians. This city is gene- 
rally supposed to have received its name from, 
and to have been founded by, Sidon, who was 
the eldest son of Canaan, the grandson of 
* Heeren. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 315 

Noah. Gen. x, 15. But if this city was founded 
by Sidon, his descendants were driven out by 
the Phoenicians,* who there laid the foundation 
of their future greatness and prosperity. Tyre 
was founded by a colony from Sidon, and is 
therefore called, in Isaiah xxiii, 12, " the daugh- 
ter of Sidon." " Aradus was founded by an- 
other colony from Sidon ; and Tripolis, as its 
name imports,! was a common colony of the 
three cities of Sidon, Tyre, and Aradus."| 

The country of Phoenicia never became, in 
the strict sense of the term, one state. The 
larger cities were always, so far as their inter- 
nal government was concerned, perfectly inde- 
pendent of each other ; and, in every period of 

* The Phoenicians were not Canaanites. Heeren sup- 
poses them to have been a part of the Aramenian branch 
of the family of Shem, (Gen. x, 22,) "who, at an epoch 
beyond the reach of history, occupied the extensive plains 
between the Mediterranean Sea and the river Tigris, the 
most southern point of Arabia and the Caucasian Moun- 
tains, and whose common descent is fully proved by the 
use of one principal language, divided into various dia- 
lects." " They [the Phoenicians] were probably not a 
distinct people, but composed of Syrian tribes who had 
settled on the coasts : in no ancient writer are they ever 
found distinguished by name from them." 

t Tripolis signifies the city of three ; being composed of 
the Greek words rota, three, and ttoTuc, city. 

t Heeren. 



316 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

their history, they are always spoken of as se- 
parate states. Thus, in Jer. xxvii, 3, and in 
other passages of Scripture, we read of " the 
king of Sidon," and " the king of Tyre ;" and 
from heathen writers we learn also that Byb- 
lus and Aradus had their separate kings. The 
smaller cities appear to have been dependen- 
cies to the larger ones ; thus, in 1 Kings xvii, 
9, Sarepta is mentioned as belonging to Sidon. 
But although the cities of Phoenicia were thus 
independent of each other in their internal 
government, they seem to have been at the 
same time united in one confederation, at the 
head of which originally stood Sidon, and 
afterward Tyre. That Tyre, during its most 
flourishing period, was the dominant city of 
Phoenicia, appears from Ezekiel xxvii, 8-11, 
where Sidon, Gebal, and Arvath are spoken of 
as her allies, and as furnishing her with their 
contingents of mariners and soldiers; and as 
Sidon, next to Tyre, was the largest, and Ar- 
vath was the most distant of the Phoenician 
cities, it is evident that the supremacy of Tyre 
must at that time have been acknowledged by 
them all. 

For the convenience of their trade, the Phoe- 
nicians planted in every quarter, but especially 
on the coasts of the Mediterranean, numerous 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 317 

colonies, of which Utica, Cadiz, and Carthage 
the rival of Rome, were the most distin- 
guished. By means of these settlements they* 
peaceably spread themselves in different parts 
of the earth ; and by their commerce, extend- 
ing even beyond these, and by their many 
great inventions and discoveries, particularly 
that of alphabetical writing, they exercised a 
vast influence in the civilization of mankind. 
" No overthrown cities and desolated countries 
marked their progress; but a long series of 
flourishing colonies, agriculture and the arts 
of peace among the formerly rude barbarians, 
pointed out the victorious career of the mer- 
chants of Tyre."* 

Tyre was situated on the eastern coast of the 
Mediterranean, about twenty miles south of 
Sidon, one hundred north of Jerusalem, and 
seventy south-west of Damascus. It was com- 
prised within the limits of the Promised Land, 
and assigned to the tribe of Asher, but it does 
not appear that the Israelites ever possessed 
themselves of it. 

In Isaiah xxxiii, 12, Tyre is called the 
%l daughter of Sidon," having been founded by 
a colony from thence. The period of its found- 
ation is, however, uncertain. Josephus states, 
* Heeren. 



318 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

that about two hundred and forty years before 
the building of Solomon's temple, Sidon being 
besieged by the Philistines of Askelon, many 
of the inhabitants escaped thence in their 
ships, and built Tyre. But Joshua mentions Tyre 
as a " strong city," more than two hundred years 
prior to the time spoken of by Josephus. Josh, 
xix, 29. " Dr. Hales conjectures that Jose- 
phus must have written twelve hundred and 
forty, and that the numerical letter, denoting a 
thousand, had fallen from the text, or had been 
omitted by the carelessness of a transcriber 
This amendment would carry back the begin- 
ning of Tyre to B. C. 2267, a conclusion which 
is supported by every appearance of proba- 
bility. That Tyre possessed a very high an- 
tiquity is rendered manifest by several allu- 
sions to it in the books of the prophets, as a 
place which was very old in their time. Isaiah 
not only describes it as a ' mart of nations,' 
but, in anticipating its downfall, he exclaims, 
'Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is 
of ancient days V "* 

There were, however, two Tyres ; or rather, 
Tyre itself consisted of two cities, one of 
which stood on a small, rocky island, about 
half a mile from the main land, and the other 

* Russell's Connection of Sacred and Profane History. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 319 

on the opposite shore. Should, therefore, Dr. 
Hales' proposed emendation of the text of Jo- 
sephus not be admitted, the discrepancy be- 
tween the account given by the Jewish histo- 
rian and that contained in Joshua, may be 
reconciled by supposing one of these to refer 
to the town on the island, and the other to that 
on the continent. 

Of the two cities, the one on the rock was 
certainly the more ancient, as from thence the 
place derived its name, the word Tyre sig- 
nifying a rock. But though continental Tyre 
was the last founded, it was, from its more 
commodious situation, the first to rise to dis- 
tinction. Insular Tyre, on the contrary, 
attained but little celebrity until after the de- 
struction of the continental city, which is, 
therefore, commonly called old Tyre. 

Tyre, although the " daughter of Sidon," 
soon eclipsed that city itself in commercial 
wealth and political importance. Of all ancient 
cities, Tyre was probably the most favourably 
situated for maritime commerce. It possessed, 
at one time, the best harbour on the Mediterra- 
nean coast ; and was the natural outlet through 
which the rich productions brought from India 
by way of Babylon, Palmyra, and Damascus, 
passed on their way to Europe. Its inhabitants 



320 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

acquired an early pre-eminence in arts, ma- 
nufactures, and commerce, and were, perhaps, 
the most industrious and enterprising people 
the world has yet seen. They pushed their 
commercial dealings to the extremities of the 
then known world, and raised their city to a 
rank in power and opulence before unknown. 
The three quarters of the world wafted wealth 
into its port, and people of all languages 
thronged its streets. No city, before or since, 
has centred within itself, as Tyre did, the trade 
of all nations, and held an absolute monopoly, 
not only of one, but of almost every branch of 
commerce. For a long period, not a single 
production of the East passed to the West, or 
of the West to the East but by the merchants 
of Tyre ; nor for many ages were any ships 
but those of Tyre daring enough to pass the 
straits of the Red Sea on the one side, or of 
the Mediterranean on the other. She claimed 
the ocean as her peculiar dominion, and styled 
herself " Queen of the Seas," a title which 
seemed justly due to her, as she first taught 
the art of braving its tempests, and navigating 
its surface. While the mariners of other 
countries were groping along their coasts, 
clinging to their landmarks, and frightened at 
a breeze, the seamen of Tyre feared to under- 



bCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 321 

take no voyage which the state of nautical sci- 
ence at that time rendered practicable. " They 
carried the art of navigation to the highest point 
of perfection of which it was then capable. 
Their numerous fleets were scattered over the 
Indian and Atlantic Oceans, and the Tyrian 
pennant waved at the same time on the coasts 
of Britain and on the shores of Ceylon."* 

Such was the flourishing condition of Tyre 
at the time when the prophets foretold its utter 
desolation. And these accounts of its riches 
and greatness are confirmed by the testimony 
of Scripture. Isaiah calls her 

" A mart of nations, 
The crowning city, 
Whose merchants are princes, 
And her traffickers the honourable of the earth." 

Isaiah xxiii, 3, 8. 

And Ezekiel says of her, 

" thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, 
"Which art a merchant for the people of many isles, 
O Tyrus, thou hast said, ' I am of perfect beauty.' 
Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, 
Thy builders have perfected thy beauty." 

Ezek. xxvii, 3, 4. 

After thus addressing her, he proceeds to de- 
tail, with great minuteness, the nations and 

* Heeren. 
21 



322 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

countries with whom she traded, and the va- 
rious articles with which they supplied her, and 
for which they received the wares and manu- 
factures of the Tyrians in return. 

Riches and magnificence thus flowing in 
upon the city from every side, the inhabitants 
became lifted up with pride, and this was one 
cause of its destruction. 
" Because thou hast said, 'lama god, 

I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas,* 

And thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches ; 

Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, 

Behold I will bring strangers upon thee, 

(The terrible of the nations ;) 

And they shall defile thy brightness, 

They shall bring thee down to the pit." 

Ezek. xxviii, 2-8. 
" The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, 

To stain the pride of all glory, 

And to bring into contempt all the honourable of the 
earth." Isaiah xxhi, 9. 

Another reason for the judgments denounced 
against them, was their cruelty to the Israelites 
in selling them into slavery, Joel iii, 5 ; and 
Ezekiel begins his prophecy against them with 
a declaration that it was in consequence of 
their exultation over the fall of Jerusalem when 
it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. 
" Because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, 
' Aha ! she is broken that was the gates of the people, 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 323 

She is turned unto me, 

I shall be replenished now she is laid waste ;' 
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, 
Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus ! 
And will cause many nations to come up against thee, 
As the sea causeth his waves to come up. 
And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, 
And break down her towers ; 
I will also scrape her dust from her, 
And make her like the top of a rock. 
It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst 
of the sea." Ezekiel xxvi, 2-5. 

This prediction refers to both continental and 
insular Tyre, and embraces the whole series 
of events by which that mighty city was re- 
duced to utter desolation : for Tyre was not to 
be destroyed at once ; " many nations" were to 
come up against it before its final destruction 
was effected. 

To insert in full all the prophecies respect- 
ing Tyre would occupy too much space. They 
are contained in Isaiah xxiii ; Amos i, 9, 10 ; 
Joel iii, 4-8 ; Ezekiel xxvi, xxvii, xxviii ; and 
Zech. ix, 3, 4. By a careful collation and 
comparison of them, we shall find that they em- 
brace the following particulars : — That the city 
should be taken and destroyed by Nebuchad- 
nezzar, king of Babylon ; — that at the end of 
seventy years the people should recover their 



324 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

liberty, and be restored to their gains and mer- 
chandize ; — that Tyre should a second time 
be taken and destroyed ; — that the inhabitants 
should at one period forsake their idols, and be- 
come worshippers of the true God ; — and that, 
finally, the city should be totally destroyed, and 
Secome a place only for fishers to spread their 
nte's upon. We will now proceed to exhibit 
the accomplishment of these predictions in the 
subsequent history of Tyre. 

The city was to be taken and destroyed by Ne- 
buchadnezzar, king of Babylon. — Enterprise and 
industry were not the only virtues of the Tyri- 
ans ; they had an undoubted claim to valour of no 
common order. Though possessing scarcely 
any territory beyond the walls of their city, yet, 
up to the time of Ezekiel, they had maintained 
their liberties inviolate, and had never been 
conquered by any nation. Salmanaser, king 
of Assyria, then the greatest monarch of the 
East, after he had subdued the Israelites and 
carried the ten tribes into captivity, turned his 
arms against Tyre. He first attacked it by sea ; 
but the Tyrians having, with only twelve ships, 
beaten his fleet of sixty, he would not again 
venture to cope with them on that element ; he 
therefore turned the war into a siege, and left 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 325 

an army to blockade the city ; but, though they 
remained before it five years, they were unable 
to take it. It was about this time that Isaiah 
foretold the miserable overthrow of Tyre by 
the Chaldeans, or Babylonians, who were then 
an insignificant people, subject to the Assy- 
rians. One hundred and twenty years after, 
Ezekiel expressly declared that it should be 
destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, who was then 
king of Babylon. 
" For thus saith the Lord God, 

Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus 

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 

With horses, and with chariots, 

And with horsemen, and companies, and much people. 

And he shall make a fort against thee, 

And cast a mount against thee, 

And lift up the buckler against thee. 

And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, 

And with his axes he shall break down thy towers. 

He shall slay thy people with the sword, 

And thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground." 

Ezek. xxvi, 7-11. 
This prediction was delivered soon after the 
destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and 
about two years after that event Nebuchadnez- 
zar laid siege to Tyre ; but such was the 
strength of the place that it was thirteen years 
before he was able to take it. In the language 
of Ezekiel, (xxix, 18,) he "caused his army 



326 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

to serve a great service against Tyrus : every 
head was made bald, and every shoulder was 
peeled ; yet had he no wages, nor his army, for 
Tyrus, for the great service that he had served 
against it ;" for the inhabitants, when they saw 
that the works for carrying on the siege were 
perfected, and that the foundations of the walls 
were shaken by the battering of the rams, had, 
the greater part of them, taken to their ships, and 
conveyed themselves, with their most valuable 
effects, to the insular town, and* to other places 
beyond the reach of the conqueror ; so that Ne- 
buchadnezzar, when at last he succeeded in 
taking the city, found himself no gainer by the 
expedition. Irritated by his disappointment, he 
wreaked his anger upon the buildings and the 
few inhabitants left in them, razing the city to 
the ground, and slaying all he found therein. 

At the end of seventy years the people were to 
recover their liberty and be restored to their gains 
and merchandize.— -The subjection of the Ty- 
rians for the space of seventy years, and the 
restoration of their prosperity at the end of that 
period, was foretold by Isaiah in the following 
words : — 

" And it shall come to pass in that day, 
That Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 327 

According to the days of one king ; 

And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy- 
years, 

That the Lord will visit Tyre, 

And she shall turn to her hire, 

And shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms 
of the world." Isaiah xxiii, 15, 17. 

This prediction refers to the interests of 
the Tyrians and not to the identical city which 
was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar ; for conti- 
nental Tyre was never rebuilt, the inhabitants 
who escaped from thence fixing themselves 
permanently in the insular town, which is the 
Tyre afterward spoken of in history. But 
though the Tyrians, by their flight, escaped the 
destruction meditated against them by Nebu- 
chadnezzar, yet they found it necessary in their 
new abode to come to terms with the conqueror ; 
and accordingly they became tributary to the 
Assyrians, and Tyre was governed by magis 
trates or judges appointed by the king of 
Babylon. 

This state of vassalage was to continue " se- 
venty years, according to the days of one king," 
that is, of one kingdom. " Nebuchadnezzar be- 
gan his conquests in the first year of his reign ; 
from thence to the taking of Babylon by the 
Persians, under Cyrus, are seventy years, at 
which time the nations conquered by Nebu- 



328 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

chadnezzar were to be restored to liberty. 
These severity years limit the -duration of the 
Babylonish monarchy. Tyre was taken by 
Nebuchadnezzar about the middle of that pe- 
riod, so did not serve the king of Babylon dur- 
ing the whole of that period, but only for the 
remaining part of it. This seems to be the 
meaning of Isaiah — the days allotted to the 
* one king,' or kingdom, are seventy years ; Tyre, 
with the rest of the conquered nations, shall 
continue in a state of subjection to the end of 
that period. Not from the beginning and through 
the whole of the period ; for, being one of the 
latest conquests, the duration of that state of 
subjection in regard to her, was not much more 
than half of it. ' All these nations,' said Jere- 
miah, * shall serve the king of Babylon seventy 
years,' Jer. xxv, 11. Some of them were con- 
quered sooner, some later ; but the end of this 
period was the common term for the deliver- 
ance of them all."* 

The Babylonish empire being then subvert- 
ed, the Tyrians, with some other remote na- 
tions, were restored to comparative independ- 
ence by the Persians. " They seem then to 
have been allowed the entire management of 
their own affairs with the only discoverable 
* Bishop Lowth. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 329 

limitation, that they were required to furnish 
subsidies and vessels to the Persians when 
called upon to do so. Accordingly they did 
render them very valuable assistance in the 
famous war of Xerxes against the Greeks ; and 
Herodotus particularly mentions the kings of 
Tyre and Sidon, as present at the council of 
war held by the Persian monarch."* 

Under the Persians, the people of Tyre re- 
covered much of their former wealth and im- 
portance,! and their city again became a mart 
of universal merchandise. When the Jews 
were rebuilding Jerusalem, the Tyrians furnish- 
ed workmen and procured the timber for the 
temple, thus assisting Ezra in the erection of the 
second temple, as they had formerly assisted 
Solomon in building the first. Ezra iii, 7. 

But with the recovery of its former credit, 
Tyre at the same time resumed its former vices ; 
and since the people had not profited by the 
first lesson which God had given them, by the 

* Pictorial Bible. 

t In point of size insular Tyre was far inferior to the 
old city, the rock upon which it was built being not more 
than three miles in circumference; upon this confined 
space, however, a large population existed, as the inha- 
bitants made amends for their want of space by the lofti- 
ness of their houses. 



330 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

hands of the king of Babylon, but still inflated 
themselves with ideas of their own greatness, a 
second judgment was pronounced against them. 

It was foretold that Tyre should again be taken 
and destroyed. — We have already observed that 
the prophecy of Ezekiel refers to the destruc- 
tion of insular Tyre, as well as of the continental 
city. This is clear from the following expres- 
sions, which can refer only to the city on the 
island : " the renowned city which was strong 
in the sea," xxvi, 17 ; — "what city is like unto 
Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the 
sea ?" xxvii, 32 ; — " thou hast said, i I sit in the 
seat of God, in the midst of the sea,' " xxviii, 2. 

But the most direct prophecy respecting in- 
sular Tyre, is that of Zechariah, who lived 
many years after the destruction of old Tyre 
by Nebuchadnezzar,* and who thus describes 
the state of the city in his time, and the terrible 
overthrow which awaited her, and which was 
accomplished by Alexander, two hundred and 
forty years after the ruin of the old city. 
" Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, 
And heaped up silver as the dust, 

* Continental Tyre was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar 
in the year 573 B.C.; and Zechariah's prophecy respect- 
ing Tyre is supposed to have been delivered about the 
year 457 B. C, which would be one hundred and sixteen 
years after that event. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 331 

And fine gold as the mire of the streets. 
Behold, the Lord will cast her out, 
And he will smite her power in the sea ; 
And she shall be devoured with fire." 

Zech. ix, 3, 4. 

It was indeed a " strong hold," being surround- 
ed on all sides by the sea, as with a moat and 
a girdle, and encircled by walls and fortifica- 
tions of such height and strength as to be 
scarcely pregnable, even had they been acces- 
sible. The citizens were bold, skilful, and 
amply supplied with arms, engines, and other 
warlike munitions, and so great were its re- 
sources, and such the strength of its position, 
that it withstood the power of Alexander's arms 
longer than any other place in the Persian do- 
minions. 

The occasion of its being attacked by Alex- 
ander was as follows : — After the battle of Is- 
sus, Alexander marched with his army along 
the coast of the Mediterranean, toward Egypt, 
receiving, as he advanced, the unconditional 
submission of the various places he visited, 
until he came to Tyre. But the Tyrians, being 
more desirous to have peace with him as a 
friend than willing to submit to him as a mas- 
ter, as he approached the city, merely sent an 
embassy to him bearing a present to himself 
and provisions for his troops, and assuring him 



332 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

of their good wishes toward him. Alexander 
received the ambassadors with honour, and an- 
nounced to them his intention to visit their city ; 
but the inhabitants, knowing that it would be 
dangerous to their liberties to suffer the king 
with his army to enter their city, and imagining 
it would be more easy to exclude than to expel 
their royal visiter, refused to admit him, and 
sent word that they were ready to perform 
whatever Alexander should command them, but 
that none, either Grecian or Macedonian, should 
be allowed to enter their gates. 

The haughty spirit of Alexander, flushed 
with so many victories, was ill able to brook 
such a reply : in a great fury he commanded 
the ambassadors who brought it to return, and 
resolved, at all hazards, to reduce the city to 
submission. He accordingly made preparations 
for the attack, while the inhabitants, with equal 
vigour, prepared for their defence ; and " the 
siege, though it lasted but seven months, was 
one of the most sanguinary conflicts, on both 
sides, that the collision of human passions and 
of human interests ever produced." 

" Apparently, no monarch ever undertook a 
more hopeless task than the capture of Tyre, 
with the means of offence possessed by Alex- 
ander. But no difficulties could daunt him. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 333 

Without a single ship, and in the face of a for- 
midable navy, he prepared to take an island 
fortress with his land forces. His plan was 
to construct a mound or causeway, from the 
shore to the city walls, erect his battering-rams 
on the western end, there effect a breach, and 
carry the town by storm."* 

The arm of the sea which separated the island 
from the continent was about half a mile wide ; 
near the shore the water was shallow, but as 
it approached the city the depth increased to 
about eighteen feet. The causeway was formed 
by sinking piles into the sea, and filling up the 
intermediate space with stones and earth. For 
this purpose abundant materials were found in 
the ruins of old Tyre, which had lain scattered 
on the shore for two hundred and forty years ; 
its stones, timber, and even the very rubbish, 
were collected ; not the remnant of a ruin was 
left. Thus did Alexander complete the fulfil- 
ment of Ezekiel's predictions respecting the old 
city, by laying " her stones, her timber, and her 
dust in the midst of the water," Ezek. xxvi, 12. 

The activity of Alexander, who himself su- 
perintended the construction of the mole, was 
warmly seconded by the zeal of his troops. 
The work proceeded rapidly at first. The wa- 
* Williams's Life of Alexander. 



334 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

ters were shallow ; the loose, sandy soil, easily 
allowed the piles to be driven through to the solid 
strata below ; and being yet at a distance from 
the city, the workmen went on without inter- 
ruption. But as they advanced further from the 
shore, the difficulties of the undertaking became 
more apparent, because the sea was deeper, the 
current more rapid, and the annoyance given 
by the enemy more effectual. Darts and other 
missiles, discharged from the top of the walls, 
reached the work in front, and vessels, fitted 
out for the purpose, attacked it on both sides, 
so that the workmen found it difficult to carry 
on their labours and at the same time defend 
themselves. Alexander then caused two wood- 
en towers to be erected on the extreme end of 
the mole, and planted his engines in them. The 
workmen were thus protected from the darts of 
the enemy, and not only so, but when the Ty- 
rians attacked them from their ships, they beat 
them back from these towers. 

To counteract these measures, the Tyrians 
constructed a fire-ship, filled with the most com- 
bustible materials, and towed to the mound. 
They then laid it alongside the towers, and 
set it on fire ; from their ships they also cast 
darts upon the Macedonians in the towers, so 
that they could not move to extinguish the fire 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 335 

without the utmost hazard. When the flames 
had taken effect, a general attack was made by 
the Tyrian fleet in front and on both sides. 
The Macedonians, blinded by the smoke, and 
enveloped in flames, could offer no effectual re- 
sistance. The success of the Tyrians was 
complete. They ascended the mound, destroy- 
ed the engines, and directed the progress of 
the flames. They beat down the facings of the 
mole, pulled up the stakes, and in a few hours 
the works of the besiegers were entirely de- 
stroyed. 

Nothing daunted by this misfortune, Alexan- 
der commenced the formation of another mole, 
much broader and stronger than the former, 
and also gave orders to his engineers to pre- 
pare new engines. Finding, however, that it 
would be almost impossible to complete the 
mole, or take the city while the Tyrians con- 
tinued masters at sea, he went to Sidon and 
procured a fleet so superior to that of the Tyri- 
ans, that the latter, after making two or three 
attacks, found it safer to keep within their har- 
bours. 

The attempts to effect a breach in the walls 
were no longer liable to be interrupted by the 
Tyrian navy, but great difficulties still re- 
mained ; for the besieged, animated by the im- 



33(5 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

minent danger to which they were exposed, 
invented daily new arts to defend themselves 
and repulse the enemy. From their com- 
manding position on the walls they could 
seriously annoy the men who worked the en- 
gines. Some they caught with grappling 
hooks, and dragged within the walls ; others 
they crushed with large stones, or pierced 
with engine darts. They also filled brazen 
shields with sand, and heated them till they 
were red-hot, and then threw the burning sand 
upon their nearest assailants. There was no- 
thing which the besiegers dreaded more than 
this, for the hot sand penetrated the chinks of 
their armour, and made the wearer frantic with 
pain. 

That part of the wall which faced the mole 
was found to be too solid for the battering- 
rams to make any considerable impression 
upon it ; the besiegers therefore constructed 
huge rafts, upon which they placed their bat- 
tering-rams and other engines, and thus the 
whole circumference of the walls was exposed 
to their attacks. It was found, however, that 
these enormous masses could not approach 
near enough to allow the engines to be plied 
with effect, as the outermost foundations of 
the wall were protected by a breastwork of 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 337 

huge stones, placed there to break the vio- 
lence of the waves. The Macedonians had, 
therefore, with great hazard and difficulty, to 
remove these unwieldy obstacles, and to clear 
the ground. The vessels employed in this ser- 
vice suffered every species of active annoy- 
ance from the Tyrians. Small boats with co- 
vered decks slipped under their sterns, and, 
cutting the cables which held them, sent them 
adrift. Alexander, seeing this, placed a line 
of boats with decks similarly covered to repel 
the Tyrians, and protect his working vessels. 
But this produced no effect ; for the Tyrians, 
being expert divers, slid secretly out of their 
boats, and swimming under water, cut the ca- 
bles close to the anchors. Chain cables were 
finally substituted, and the work proceeded, 
till, the huge bank of stones being cleared 
away, the floats could easily approach the 
wall. 

They first brought the floating engines to bear 
upon the northern part of the wall ; but fail- 
ing to do any execution there, they moved 
them round to the southern side, making at- 
tempts on different parts of the walls as they 
passed along, until at length they found a more 
vulnerable spot, and succeeded in making a 
small breach ; whereupon they immediately 
22 



338 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

mounted the breach by the help of their lad- 
ders, and began to storm the place ; but the Ty- 
rians, without any difficulty, repulsed them. 
The third day after this, the sea being perfectly 
calm, a general assault was made. Two rafts, 
carrying the most powerful engines and batter- 
ing-rams, were again brought up to the wall, a 
great part of which fell at the first shock of the 
engines. As soon as the breach was wide 
enough, the besiegers entered the city over the 
ruins of the wall. In the mean time, the fleet 
had made two successful attacks from opposite 
quarters ; one part of it had forced an entrance 
into the northern, and the other into the south- 
ern harbour ; so that the city was taken on all 
sides. 

The carnage was dreadful ; for the Macedo- 
nians, exasperated by numerous insults, by the 
length and obstinacy of the defence, and the 
serious loss they had suffered, showed no 
mercy. Eight thousand of the inhabitants 
were slain : those only who had fled to the tem- 
ples were spared ; the remainder, to the num- 
ber of thirty thousand, were sold into slavery.* 
Thus, according to the prophecy, were the Ty- 
rians "cast out" of the "strong hold" which 
they had built for themselves ; while " their 
*Jo*liii, $-8. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 339 

power in the sea" was " smitten" by the loss of 
their navy. 

The foregoing particulars respecting the 
capture of Tyre have been chiefly gathered 
from Arrian's History of Alexander's expedi- 
tion. Quintus Curtius, who has written upon 
the same subject, but whose history is con- 
sidered less authentic, adds that the conqueror 
ordered the city to be set on fire: the confla- 
gration, however, if it took place, must have 
been but a partial one, for Alexander, when 
he had " ridded the city of its former inhabit- 
ants, repeopled it with colonies drawn from 
the neighbouring places, and from thence 
would be esteemed the founder of the city, 
though in truth he was the cruel destroyer 
of it."* 

Tyre, soon after this, again became a place 
of importance, and was an object of conten- 
tion among Alexander's successors ; but it 
never regained its former greatness ; for, by the 
building of Alexandria in Egypt, which gradu- 
ally drew away from Tyre that foreign traffic 
through which it had enjoyed unexampled 
prosperity for not less than a thousand years, 
Alexander did the Tyrians more lasting injury 
than he had done by the capture of their city. 
* Prideaux. ♦ 



340 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

But there is a prophecy respecting Tyre 
that is of a more pleasing character : — It was 
foretold that at one period Tyre should forsake 
her idols and worship the true God. — The Psalm- 
ist, describing the access of the Gentiles to the 
kingdom of the Messiah, says, 

" The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift." 

Psalm xlv, 12. 

And Isaiah foretels, that 

" Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the 
Lord : 
It shall not be treasured nor laid up ; 
For her merchandise shall be for them that dwell be- 
fore the Lord, 
To eat sufficiently and for durable clothing." 

Isaiah xxiii, 18. 

These predictions evidently indicate a period 
when " Tyre, converted by the gospel, should 
no more be a scandal and stumbling-block to 
nations : should no longer sacrifice her labour 
to the idolatry of wealth, but to the worship of 
the Lord, and the comfort of those that serve 
him."* They began to be accomplished in the 
days of our Saviour, at which time Tyre was 
still a populous and flourishing place. When he 

* Rollin. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 341 

exercised his personal ministry in the land of 
Judea, " a great multitude of people from the 
sea-coasts of Tyre and Sidon came to hear 
him and to be healed of their diseases," Luke 
vi, 17; see also Matthew xiv, 21-28. When 
Paul, on his way to Jerusalem, visited Tyre, 
he found disciples there who were inspired by 
the Holy Ghost and prophesied, and with them 
he " tarried seven days." The shores of Tyre 
had witnessed many splendid spectacles, but 
none so beautiful as that which they presented 
upon the apostle's departure : " and the disci- 
ples all brought us on our way, with wives 
and children, till we were out of the city : and 
we kneeled down on the shore and prayed. 
And when we had taken our leave one of an- 
other, we took ship, and they returned home 
again," Acts xxi, 5, 6. During the persecu- 
tions under Diocletian, the Christians of Tyre 
witnessed a good confession, and many spirits 
fled triumphantly from thence to join " the 
noble army of martyrs." After the storm of 
persecution was blown over, the Tyrians, un- 
der their bishop Paulinus, erected for the wor- 
ship of God the most magnificent temple in 
all Palestine and Phoenicia, and many other 
churches were also built there. Eusebius, 
who flourished in the fourth century, com- 



342 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

meriting on this prophecy of Isaiah, observes, 
" It is fulfilled in our time. For since a church 
of God hath been founded in Tyre, as well as 
in other nations, many of its goods, gotten by 
merchandise, are consecrated to the Lord, 
being offered to his church — for the use of the 
ministers of the altar or gospel, according to 
the institution of our Lord, that they who wait at 
the altar should live of the altar." In like man- 
ner, St. Jerome remarks, " We may behold 
churches in Tyre built to Christ ; we may see 
their riches, that they are not treasured, ' not 
laid up,' but given to those who ' dwell before 
the Lord.' For the Lord hath appointed, that 
they who preach the gospel should live of the 
gospel." Eusebius gives the following delight- 
ful character of the church then in existence : 
"Comely rites and ceremonies of the church 
were celebrated ; here, with psalmodies and 
other songs of praise delivered us from above ; 
there, with divine and mystical ministry the 
secret pledges of the Lord's passion were 
solemnized ; and withal, men and women of 
every age, with all the might that in them lay, 
with cheerful mind and will, in prayer and 
thanksgiving, honoured God, the author of all 
goodness." At an early period, Tyre was 
erected into an archbishopric, and had four- 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 343 

teen bishoprics under its jurisdiction ; and in 
this state it continued several years.* 

But it was predicted that finally Tyre should 
be totally destroyed, and become a place only 
for fishers to spread their nets upon. — About the 
year 639 Tyre fell into the hands of the Sara- 
cens. In 1124, at which time it was still a 
considerable place, it was taken from them by 
the Crusaders, who retained it till 1289, when 
it was taken by the Mamelukes of Egypt, who 
destroyed both Tyre and Sidon, with some 
other strong towns, that they might no longer 
afford any harbour or shelter to the Christians. 
In 1516 it came into the possession of the 
Turks. Sandys, who was at Tyre one hun- 
dred years subsequent to this, after alluding to 
its former greatness, adds, — " But this once 
famous Tyre is now no other than a heap of 
ruines ; yet have they a reverent respect, and 
doe instruct the pensive beholder by their ex- 
emplary frail tie." 

Since that period it has been visited by 
numerous travellers ; and the literal fulfilment of 
the prophecy, which, nearly two thousand years 
before its complete destruction, had foretold 
the use that would be made of its site, and the 
* Newton — Hardy. 



344 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

kind of men that would inhabit it, has been 
confirmed by the testimony of many witnesses : 

11 1 will make her like the top of a rock, 
It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst 
of the sea." 

Maundrell, who visited Tyre in 1696, de- 
scribes it thus : " This city, standing in the sea 
upon a peninsula,* promises at a distance some- 
thing very magnificent. But when you come to it, 
you find no similitude of that glory for which it 
was so renowned in ancient times. On the north 
side it has an old Turkish ungarrisoned castle ; 
besides which you see nothing here but a con- 
fused Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, 
&c. ; there being not so much as one entire 
house left. Its present inhabitants are only a 
few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in 
the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing , 
who seem to be preserved in this place by 
divine Providence, as a visible argument how 
God has fulfilled his word concerning Tyre." 

*Tyre was converted into a peninsula by the mound 
with which Alexander connected it to the main land ; for 
the sea, which usually destroys artificial structures, has 
not only spared this, but has so enlarged it, by washing 
up the sand on either side, that it is become a solid isth- 
mus, and none, but those acquainted with its history, 
would suppose it to be the work of man. 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 345 

Dr. Shaw, who was there a few years after 
Maundrell, says, — " Notwithsanding Tyre was 
the chief maritime power of this country, I 
could riot observe the least token of a harbour 
that could have been of any extraordinary ca- 
pacity. In the N. N. E. part of the city were 
traces of a safe and commodious basin, lying 
within the walls, but which at the same time 
is very small, scarce forty yards in diameter. 
Yet even this port, small as it is at present, is 
notwithstanding so choked up with sand and 
rubbish, that the boats of those poor fishermen 
who now and then visit this once renowned 
emporium, and dry their nets upon its rocks 
and ruins, can with great difficulty only be 
admitted." 

But the most striking testimony is that of the 
infidel Yolney, who, in an interesting account 
of Tyre, after quoting from Ezekiel the de- 
scription of its ancient glory, and the predic- 
tion of its overthrow, adds, — " The vicissitudes 
of time, or rather the barbarism of the Greek 
empire, and the Mohammedans, have accom- 
plished the prediction. Instead of the ancient 
commerce, so active and extensive, Sour, [the 
modern name of Tyre,] reduced to a miserable 
village, has no other trade than the exportation 
of a few sacks of corn, and raw cotton, nor any 



346 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

merchant but a single Greek factor in the ser- 
vice of the French of Saide, [Sidon,] who 
scarcely makes sufficient profit to maintain his 
family." The same writer informs us that "the 
whole village contains only fifty or sixty poor 
families, who live but indifferently, on the pro- 
duce of their little grounds, and a trifling fish- 
ery. The houses they occupy are no longer, 
as in the days of Strabo, edifices of three or 
four stories high, but wretched huts, ready to 
crumble to pieces." This was in 1784 ; since 
that period, Tyre has somewhat increased, and 
Mr. Jowett, in 1823, estimated the population 
at fourteen hundred, and the number of houses 
at two hundred ; most of these, however, con- 
sisted of only one or two rooms, and were 
more like huts than houses. Mr. JolifFe says, 
" Some miserable cabins, ranged in irregular 
lines, dignified with the name of streets, and 
a few buildings of a rather better description, 
occupied by the officers of government, compose 
nearly the whole of the town. The noble dust 
of Alexander, traced by the imagination till found 
stopping a beer barrel, would scarcely afford 
a stronger contrast of grandeur and debase- 
ment, than Tyre, at the period of being be- 
sieged by that conqueror, and the modern town 
of Tsour, erected on its ashes." 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 347 

The following description is given by Mr. 
Hardy, who was there in 1833. He says, — 
" The island is represented by Pliny as hav- 
ing been four miles in circumference, but the 
peninsula upon which the present town is 
situated is of much less extent. It would 
therefore appear that it is built for the most 
part upon the mole thrown up by Alexander, 
including a small portion of the original island. 
There is thus enough of the rock left in ex- 
istence for the fishers to spread their nets 
upon, while the principal area, once mantled 
with palaces and alive with a busy population, 
has been swept into " the midst of the water," 
and can be built no more.* The disappear- 
ance of the island has caused the destruction 
of the harbours ; and as all protection to ship- 
ping is now taken away, Tyre can never again 
rise to eminence as the mart of nations. There 
are still two small rocks in the sea, to which 
the island probably extended. The present 
town is walled, and is of very modern date. 
The space inside is in a great measure open, 
and the houses are mean ; the governor's resi- 
dence is the only respectable building.— No 
merchant of the earth now enters the name of 

* " I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great wa- 
ters shall cover thee," Ezek. xxvi, 19. 



348 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

Tyre upon his books, and where thousands once 
assembled in pomp and pride, and there was 
beauty, and splendour, and dominion, I could 
discover only a few children amusing themselves 
at play, and a party of Turks sitting in gravity, 
and sipping their favourite coffee." 

The following is taken from Dr. Robinson : — 
" 1838, June 24. We spent this day at Tyre. 
After breakfast I wandered out alone toward the 
south end of the peninsula, beyond the city, 
where all is now forsaken and lonely, like the 
desert. I continued my walk along the whole 
western and northern shore of the peninsula, 
musing upon the pomp and glory, the pride and 
fall, of ancient Tyre. Here was the little isle, 
once covered by her palaces, and surrounded by 
her fleets ; where the builders perfected her 
beauty in the midst of the seas; where her mer- 
chants were princes, and her traffickers the hon- 
ourable of the earth : but alas ! ' thy riches, and 
thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy 
pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy mer- 
chandise, and all the men of war that were in 
thee, and in all thy company,' — where are they ? 
Tyre has indeed become 'like the top of a rock, 
a place to spread nets upon ! ' The sole remain- 
ing tokens of her more ancient splendour lie 
strewed beneath the waves in the midst of the 



SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 349 

sea ; and the hovels which now nestle upon a 
portion of her site, present no contradiction of the 
dread decree, ' Thou shalt be built no more ! ' " 

Dr. Olin, who visited the East in 1840, says 
of Tyre, " The present miserable town stands 
on a small part of the east side of the peninsula 
— the former island. The site is low, and the 
houses, from whatever point seen, appear to rise 
out of the sea. It is a poor-looking place, made 
up of low, flat-roofed houses, has but little busi- 
ness, and perhaps three or four thousand inha- 
bitants. I walked to the harbour. There were 
then only four small craft in this little port — 
rather boats than ships : as many more were 
drawn ashore for repairs. The water is shoal. 
Mr. Stukes and I took a small boat to perform the 
circuit of the old city. It could not come to land, 
and we were carried on board by the waterman. 
I do not think there is eight feet water in any 
part of the harbour. This is the ancient port, 
and it is still enclosed by the remains of an an- 
cient wall, which formed at the same time the 
wall of the town. Passing to the outside of this 
wall, we passed quite round the peninsula to the 
south side of the isthmus. The massive founda- 
tions of the ancient pier rise several feet above 
the shallow water. The stones of the foundation 
are very massive. The work consisted of a sue- 



350 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

cession of strong towers, connected by thick 
walls reaching across the mouth of, or rather 
forming the harbour. About midway, a passage 
was left for the ingress and egress of vessels. 
Parts of this pier have suffered from violent 
storms, and immense blocks of stone are visible 
through the transparent water, scattered over the 
bottom of the sea. At different points along this 
sea-wall are large numbers of ancient columns 
and fragments of columns, lying mostly in the 
water. I counted above fifty of these in one 
place, many of them of a very large size. We 
traced the old wall around the western side of the 
peninsula. The whole line is easily traceable by 
considerable remains. On the southern end of 
the peninsula, the remains of the old wall are still 
more considerable. It was strengthened by tow- 
ers, distributed at short intervals, of which the 
massive foundations remain. The massiveness 
of the stones employed in building the sea-wall 
is, I think, pretty conclusive evidence that this 
noble bulwark belongs to the early and pros- 
perous days of Tyrian commerce. The whole 
peninsula, where not occupied by the houses of 
the present city, is covered with foundations, bro- 
ken arches, and heaps of stone and rubbish. The 
modern village has almost no importance of any 
kind, and it is only wonderful that three thousand 



SCRIPTURE PROPHFXY. 351 

miserable people should have assembled upon 
this sickly spot, instead of living in the more 
healthy and pleasant mountain villages. The 
facility of obtaining building materials from the 
field of ruins, and some advantages of fishing, 
were probably the chief inducements for reviving 
this poor shadow of Tyre. 

Of old or continental Tyre it was expressly 
foretold, — " Thou shalt be no more; though thou 
be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found 
again" Ezek. xxvi, 21. Its ruins, as we have 
already shown, were removed by Alexander, 
and now, not a single vestige of the ancient 
city appears. The traveller, as he paces along 
its desolate shore, finds it difficult to realize the 
fact, that 



-once it was the busiest haunt, 



Whither, as to a common centre, flocked 
Strangers, and ships, and merchandise." 

" The stirring scenes of a sea-port exhibit a 
picture of more constant excitement than can 
ever be presented by any other place. The 
arrival and discharge of ships ; the cries of the 
captains as they direct the ready mariners ; the 
songs of the boatmen, the dash of the oars, and 
the roll of the sea ; the anxious assemblies of 
the merchants, either speaking of traffic, or 



352 SCRIPTURE PROPHECY. 

proclaiming their good fortune, or lamenting- 
the loss of some fair ship in a destructive gale ; 
the reckless merriment of the sailors, as they 
enjoy upon land a little respite from their con- 
stant toils : — all these, and a thousand other 
scenes of noise, and joyousness, and wealth, 
have been exhibited upon this now deserted 
shore. They have vanished like the feverish 
dream of a disturbed sleep." — Hardy. Not one 
sight, not one sound remains to bear witness to 
its former joyousness and pride. 

"Her renown 
Is pass'd away ! her palaces are gone ! — 
Her riches, gold and silver, precious stones, 
Fine linen, silk, and costly merchandise, 
All, all have pa?s'd away!" — Athehstone. 

"Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre? 
The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the 
pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all 
the honourable of the earth." Isa. xxiii, 8,9. 



THE END. 



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